Knights of the frozen ashes (League of legends)
by sr.unknown
Summary: Everyone has its secrets, that is normal. But the problem comes when someone tries to reveal them, and then they discover why they were kept. This is the story of how the secrets the league kept changes the world of its champions, or the champions themselves.(it contains various pairings aside the ones mentioned read to find out. WARNING:yuri, lemon, violence)
1. Prologue

Prologue

 _LEGENDARY!_ The announcer claimed another kill for the current land lord of the summoners rift, aka…

"JAJAJAJAJ! Have you heard vixen? One more for the almighty MONKEY KING!" Wukong laughed raising his staff in the air while standing on the corpse of Cho'gat.

"Geesh Wu stop being so loud, you might miss the announce of your demise" the 'vixen' as Wukong prefers calling his best friend Ahri answered. She was currently trying to keep a confident expression but she was clearly nervous

"You think you are sooo clever vixen, but I got this bet on the tip of my tail" he said spinning his staff on his tail

"And how many times I told you I don't like you to call me that?" she answered" with a big pout on her mouth

"Um let's see... sum nine, take two…"he started writing calculations in the air with his shrunken staff and Ahri just rolled his eyes. If she didn't know him, she would have thought he just wanted to be funny.

But she knew him, and she knew that he indeed was keeping track of how many times she actually told him that.

"I think there were like three or four times less than the ones I answer you that I DON'T CARE" the monkey king laughed to her friend while all she could was snort pouting at him, but then she had a devilish idea, something to use his best friends habit of mocking her against him. She enlarged her pout and then said

"Oh I don't know sir monkey king" the nine tailed fox started "Is that a way to talk to the only woman that in the house that cooks you the food just the way you like it?" she continued sultry "then maybe you'll dinner dried bread and water tonight".

"NO! Please oh grate and powerful Ahri, what must this humble soul do for you to bless it with your mercy?" the monkey king said kneeling and joining his hands in supplication.

"You think you are sooo clever monkey" Wukong widened his eyes "but if you insist I can think of many, many things you can do to repay me" she added sultry while pushing her chest up making them look bigger and sobbing them with one of her tails. Then out of nowhere a pink smoke started surrounding the monkey king.

'This is it! Finally it's working!' the vixen thought blushing and started to feel… something….it was like being horny just that instead of between her legs she felt it between her breasts(a/n that's some explanation -_-a/n) Ahri didn't know what it was called, she had only felt like this a few times in her life.

Always while she was with the monkey king.

"Wu…" she started hopefully with a sweet smile

"Have you heard that?" and then she was interrupted

"Yes I think it sounded like an insinuation?" she asked with her hopes fading.

 _DOUBLE KILL!_

"Yi!" the monkey king exclaimed and then rushed into the jungle.

'Aaaaand it fails again' Ahri thought disappointed before running after his friend 'just why it does keep failing?' she sked herself feeling depressed. "Remember if you die just once I'll win!"

"Like that would ever happen!"

"It happened before" she replied but he just dashed deeper in the jungle ignoring her completely "hey wait for me"

When they arrived to the mid lane they found the corpses of Rengar and Xerath's one being spread in the ground. And next to the crumble that was once the second red turret, was the meditating figure of master Yi surrounded by a four red runes levitating around him. He was barely wounded and already recovering, he and Wukong were in tie, having the same amount of kills (21), deaths (0) with only Yi having two less assistances and recently one double kill.

But Wu didn't mind, he's been working on something special for Yi, and now it was the perfect occasion.

Wasting no more time, he jumped at his master sending two copies surrounding him. Yi didn't even open his eyes until the moment before the monkey's staffs collided with his head.

Except they didn't hit his head but his sword

"How many times did I told you not to bother me while I'm meditating?" the master asked his student.

"Um… let's see, take four…rest tw-" he was interrupted when he had to block Yi's alpha strike which destroyed his clones, and counter attack with a back kick aimed to his midsection.

He catch his foot and they pushed each other away.

Ahri watched them they from a safe distance, remembering what happened to the last guy who interrupted one of their fights

And then…

-¡CREEEEEEEEEEEJ!- A screech they could only hear on their nightmares exploded alerting the whole rift.

Wu, Yi and Ahri were the first ones to see what caused it

It was Xerath's corpse; it was floating on its sealed shape absorbing energy, and it looked like if it was about to…

"¡WE HAVE TO DISCONECT!" Yi screamed "¡Quickly, before…!

BOOOOOOOOOMM


	2. Chapter 1: New world, new thrills

Chapter1

New world, new thrills

Nobody from the outside world would imagine it, but ever since Noxus changed his government and location it became actually a safe place to live. Of course if you don't mind being spied 24/7 looking for any hints of treason and having a curfew that you have to abide or you will arrested and then interrogated in a painful way.

The new city was still in construction process and it was already late night so the only way to be in the street is to have a special permission, a professional level of stealth or a strength recognized by the whole city or at least the high command

The latter one was the case of Katarina Du'couteau. She was currently running through the rooftops, using shumpo from time to time only to shorten the distance between her and the capitol. All the way from her apartment till now she's been cursing the new formed council for calling her at such a late hour in her free days, she didn't know what could be so urgent but better be important.

'I'm sure they'll have the gall to reprehend me for being late or even accuse me of having" indecent activities"' at this thought she face palmed herself, hard, because of the realization that they wouldn't be entirely wrong about that . So she started cursing herself a little to the rest of the way.

After a few more minutes, one or two shumpo's, and a bunch of curses she finally saw her destination on the distance.

The capitol main building was three floors high and was four blocks wide. On the corners there were four sentry towers with two spotlights each one. It had a u shape with the main door placed on the center under the intimidating noxian crest. The whole place was built strategically so if any demacian…ekhm… enemy army or mob tried to break inside they could be easily surrounded by dozens of campers in the roofs.

The sight of that building could have two effects on her: Thrill because it meant that the elder council probably had a mission for her and that meant assassination. Or it could mean another meeting of old, senile people babbling about new ideas ways to overpower Demacia and take control of Valoran. Yet the key word was 'ideas', meaning that it was all talk no action. So she, being and action woman, went to standstill mode for hours only able to think stuff like when will the meeting end, or why the universe hate her so much to give her in such a punishment, or even how easy would be to stab herself in the heart just to escape from there.

She prayed hard that it wasn't the latter; they hardly gave her assassination missions since…that day. So she has been accumulating a lot of stress. And stress and a council meeting could only mean a slowly and painful death

"I swear I'll just jump of the next roof if I don't kill someone soon!" she said out loud, but then noticed the proximity of said roof, the next ones and also the pipes that they had ' it isn't such a bad idea' she thought and since she couldn't do it the other way, she decided to relieve some stress

With a quick movement she activated the chronometer on her watch and not even a millisecond after she jumped to the next rooftop

In that moment she stopped running, oh no she wasn't running, she was flying.

That was probably the only activity that she enjoyed almost or even the same as killing

The old parkour

Few things caused Katarina's adrenaline to rise, but to her adrenaline was equal to ecstasy. Every time she runs that way it remembers her the most exciting of combats. Every time she ducked under a pipe she felt like ducking under an enemy's sword, when she dashed between an air conditioning and a water tank she remember when she smashed through a window when the situation didn't require stealth and it was overwhelming the feeling she had each time she cut the rope of a crane to gain an upwards boost.

She felt...untouchable

When she was done the assassin was breathing heavily. She stopped the chronometer and looked at her time.

'26, 5 seconds for a hundred meters, you're getting rusty' she thought 'I seriously hope they give at least some exercise'

When she finally arrived to the capitol she was received by two guards who grant her access at the mere sight of the sinister blade sending them a scowl. There was an incident the last time she's been due to 'proper protocols', but a few broken bones were for them to understand why protocols didn't apply for her.

To enter the capitol is like traveling to a completely different world. While on the outside the building resembled a fortress, on the inside was like a filthy rich museum.

Cross the main doors and you'll find an enormous hall made of black marble. The walls were decorated with whit various paintings showing the episodes of the noxian history, the floor was also made of black marble whit crimson diamond patterns, on the roof hanged an elegant black and crimson candelabrum which looked like four armored dragons breathing fire; there wasn't any candles or lamps, the light was created whit magic to look like the dragons were breathing it; and the roof itself was made of glass with retractable panels so the room could light both day and night.

To the left there were hallways leading the offices of the council members and to the right to the quarters of the Steel fist, the new formed order system (or 'bunch of double faces' as the assassin prefers).

But the 'filthy rich' part wasn't the architecture but the ornament that stood in the middle of the hall.

It was a twenty feet tall gold statue of a tall, short haired man wearing a flashy yet intimidating armor raising his sword in war cry.

The statue of the current Grand general Keiran Darkwill

Yet Katarina wasn't interested in anything of the aforementioned but in the man leaning on their leader's statue

It was about 6 feet tall, bald whit three lines of hair remaining, was wearing a scarf covering the lower part of his face, he walked whit a cane and on his left shoulder he had probably the most hideous crow in the whole history, it had six red eyes and messy black feathers.

They stood before each other for a few moments in silence, the man was looking at her as if expecting something from her and the assassin was looking at him like not wanting to please him. But at least those were not hostile gazes; the look on the crow's eyes was murderous at least.

After an unspecified amount of time the man cleared his throat signalizing that they won't leave till he get what he demanded.

Sighing in defeat the assassin finally spoke

"Swain" she greet him clearly pissed

"Sinister blade" he greet her back ignoring her tone "you are late"

'I fucking knew it' she thought "well sorry for not being available every hour of every week next time I'll mold my schedule more to your tastes". When she said that the crow hissed coldly at her dangerously, threaten her to continue.

"Calm down Beatrice" Swain's words worked like charm "children had the right to be insolent sometimes" the insult wasn't what bothered the assassin, but the way he said it. Not insulting but merely stating the facts.

No matter what was the situation, the strategist always managed to piss her of.

"Now if I may ask" he continued "what were you doing that was so important?"

"Is for me to know and for you to guess" she stated

"You know many people wouldn't believe it but I actually admire that stubbornness of your" he praised her sarcastically . You don't mind trivial things such as manners or priorities, you get the job done in your own terms and while it's inefficient it is certainly efec…"

"It's not like I don't enjoy our chats but I have an appointment" she passed him wanting to end this as soon as possible

Also, she really hated their chats

"Yes, with me" the assassins stop dead in her tracks and looked at Swain questioningly "I managed to fake the council orders without them noticing"

'Great more cheats' if there was something Katarina hated, was being manipulated. "Then why am I here?"

"Before I'll tell you about it I'm going to reveal you ONE secret".

"Really? What, it's my birthday or something?" the high command was very strict with its secrets, they rarely -never- share their secrets whit anyone even their assassins.

"This brings us to the time of the first Grand general Boram Darkwill" Swain continued, ignoring her "His seek of power was admirable but, we have to accept, it was also bold and at some point it became dangerous. I'm not talking about the forbidden magics, but the look for new biological weapons" the assassin was listening a little bored for the history lesson" one in particular was called project 'Metuas diem'".

"What?"

"Its Latin, it means 'fears death'" he sat at the base of the statue there was an emotion on his face the assassin couldn't place. Was it…? No it couldn't be…worry? "The idea was to create a drug that could private the user from his fears, emotions and pain both emotional and physical to make them more efficient warriors and assassins"

"So that was the drug Noxus has been developing whit Zaun? The perfect assassin?" she asked

"Yes that was the original idea" he answered "but Boram discovered it had another use" he made a pause with pain in his face "with a bit of magic in the formula it could literally hack the enemies brain to transmit all the fear and pain that the user's brain had to them".

Katarina raised her eyebrow not understanding.

"Imagine an army of coldblooded killers against an army of coward children". That got the assassin's interest. "That's the reason it was labeled as classified; if the word that we were developing such a weapon spread out, Demacia would never let it go."

"What is the problem of Demacia being afraid of us?"Couldn't we just threat them?" she started to get suspicious

"It wouldn't be a problem if we could carry those threats" the strategist answered with resignation "but we couldn't, the project was a failure, none of the test subjects survived. Finally it was canceled and the secret labs closed" he said with hints of anger "those facilities were abandoned for almost twenty years now…but…a week ago an order was sent for all the scientists that worked on the project to go there and recover all the notes and every drop of the formula that was left. They hadn't return ever since"

"Why would the Grand general send such an order? Didn't you say the project was a failure?" she asked curious.

"That's the thing, the general didn't send any order" he said shocking her" but when the council investigated the matter, they tracked the order to the main computer of the same facilities" the curiosity in her eyes became excitement.

"It's that so?" she asked with a smirk

"Yes and that's not all, yesterday we sent a Crimson squad to find out what happened, and all communications failed instantly. They disappeared to" Katarina's suspicions continued to rise, the Crimsons weren't by any means pushovers, and they disappear in a rescue mission?

"And that would be your mission: find out what happened to the team; what or who send the first order and seal the labs" he stressed the last part, like daring her to disobey

"Seal?" she asked 'what are you hiding there Swain?' "It doesn't sound like my kind of mission" she really hoped she could kill someone today

"I know but you are the only one capable enough if the Crimson's weren't"

"But what about Talon?"

"He has already left, you will meet him there" he stated "he just couldn't wait you any longer"

"Where are those labs again?" she asked avoiding to discuss her schedule again

"At the old city, in the psychiatric hospital" the assassin complaint slightly, she was about to enter a damn abandoned madhouse "a car is waiting you outside along with an emergency team"

Feeling that there was nothing more to say she turned around and started walking to the exit. She hadn't even walked ten steps when Swain called her again

"Sinister blade" he called her attention "I have to give you one last warning: if you do anything beyond the limits of the mission whatever happens, it would be at your own risk" he said regaining his usual monotone and his crow hissing in approval.

"I'll keep that in mind" she said in a bored tone and then left 'so Swain thinks he can temp me into whatever he has hidden in there?' she grinned and started to feel very excited 'maybe I should please him for once?'


	3. Chapter 2 Forgotten home

Chapter 2

Forgotten home

Katarina would never admit it even to herself but what was bothering her right now wasn't the mission in a creepy abandoned madhouse, neither the fact that Swain was hiding something important there and practically challenged her to find out what it was.

No, the real problem was, the place where that madhouse was.

She hadn't returned to the old city since it was abandoned, well, no one has, although there were rumors of a sect of rebels that oppose to the decision of leave the city of their ancestors. The assassin never liked that order either ¿What kind of coward leaves his own city to die just like that?

The van finally stopped, she got out and looked at the city.

'Oh yeah it was for that' the city center was placed on and inside a mountain that resembled to a skull. They were currently standing back to the bridge that connected the citadel with the outsides of the city where the common and poor people lived. Or what was left because now it had become a barren wasteland.

Most of the city was reduced to debris, the houses consumed long ago and the stinking concoction that passing under and around the city flooded the entire place.

'Why is so, so repulsive seeing the city like this?' she wondered 'it's not like if we had lost a fight, what happened was beyond…'

"I never took you as the nostalgic type" the assassin jumped a little at the voice that sounded behind her but she didn't bless it with an answer.

The owner of the voice sighed and walked next to her. He had Roman nose, yellow eyes and was wearing a blue hood and a cloak made of leather stripes that ended in blades. The rail they were currently leaning on and the height of the mountain give a perfect view of what once was their home.

"It's strange seeing it like this isn't?" the owner of the voice asked.

"What are you insinuating Talon?"

"I'm not 'insinuating' anything; I'm just trying to let you know that I sympathize with your pain" the blade shadow stated.

"I do not have any pain" she replied

"To miss your home city doesn't make you weaker, you are still human" she snorted "besides you said yourself that you didn't want to leave".

"And you don't believe so?" the anger in the assassin started to rise "this was the only place that valued our strength and we abandon it just because our said 'general' said so?!" she almost yelled "where is the strength in that?!"

"You know I dislike it as much as you do" he said sternly, Katarina was about to retaliate but Talon was faster "but no we didn't left because Keiran said so, we left because we didn't had a choice…this isn't a question of strength".

Katarina broke her gaze in defeat, she wanted to say more, but she couldn't, because she knew that all Talon said…was true.

"I don't want to feel anything" she admitted "I don't want to feel anymore".

"Your own father taught us to never abandon our emotions, not for not losing our humanity, but because there are our biggest source of power". At the mention of her father the assassin's eyes started watering slightly. She immediately tried to wipe them of but Talon hold her hand stopping her "tell me, what you would do if you do if lost the thrill of murder? Or what would I do if I lost the calm that gives me a sword, hmm?"

The assassin saw the point in his words and its intentions, so she just let her tears fall. Talon was the only person in the world that understood her. He was one of the few people that she didn't hate.

But there is where the relation ended.

"Let's just get this over with" Katarina ended the conversation; there were enough emotions for a lifetime.

"Of course" Talon agreed.

* * *

The psychiatric hospital, just like most of the buildings in Noxus, was inside or over the great granite mountain in the center of the city. Except this one was still below the bottom of said mountain; Noxus contained the biggest dungeons system of all Runaterra, there are kilometers and kilometers of tunnels and labyrinths filled with stores taverns and residencies.

One would think that, being underground, this part of the city would be protected of any outside damage.

But the underside was an exact copy of the above.

As creepy as it sounds the 'underground' part, before it had at least some life, but now it could only be described as descent into hell, if they weren't noxians, they wouldn't even dream of going there in such a state. Even their 'emergency team' was looking nervous. With the only source of light been a few flashlights, they were really considering abandon the assassins.

But they weren't THAT afraid.

When they were passing threw a particularly narrow passage, with Katarina on the front followed by Talon and their team, they suddenly hear a crumbling sound. And then it stopped.

That clicked something on Talon's mind.

"Hey, did Swain tell you what this is all about? he suddenly asked.

"He didn't tell you about the whole 'Metuas diem' project thing?" Katarina asked back

"No he did tell me about that, he said he would tell me more when you arrived but…"

"Don't you start complaining about my timing to" she threatened.

"…anyway, I meant what happened specifically, with the scientists and the first rescue team"

"No he kept tight lipped about that but…" she remembered how Swain was speaking when he told her "…I think he might be hiding something there".

"What makes you think that?" Talon asked.

"When we were talking he almost seemed worried about what happened there twenty years ago" the assassin started connecting the dots "and then the way he ordered me to seal the labs connected to the fact that the first order was sent from the inside of the building…"

"You think someone is still in there?" The shadow blade asked with a smirk.

"In these days someone surviving that long it's far from impossible" she mirrored his grin "but the best part was the way he told me that if I overdo the terms of the mission it would be at my own risk" her smirk grew " almost as if challenging me. At this Talon chuckled.

"You are gonna take his challenge, won't you?" the assassin chuckled to

"You know me to well"

* * *

After they got deep enough into the caves they finally saw it, the 'Noxian Reeducation Clinic' or NRC. Formerly known as the torture chambers, where they brought the people who oppose the noxian regime to, well, make them think twice before defying the high command. Afterwards they left the torture for the prisoners and it became a psychiatric hospital but changed the torture part for 'treatment' but there wasn't much different in the end.

The architecture was nothing special, just as set of three big windows with a double door below carved on the bottom of the cave. On the first two floors were the offices of the doctors, a small cafeteria and the rooms of the patients. But those were the lower cases; on the first lower floor were the serious case patients (you know the kind that eat human meat) placed in about, a hundred sealed cells aligned in two rows, fifty on the left and right. However, twenty two years ago, another floor was excavated.

"There must be" Katarina stated

"Ok listen!" Talon addressed the 'emergency team' "the sinister blade and I are going down there alone" the relief on their faces was comical "if we need your assistance we'll notify you via radio. Now if we don't come out in an hour check in and call for reinforcement, until then nothing enters or leaves. Am I clear?" he ordered them.

"Yes! Shadow's blade!" they replied in unison, and then the both assassins enter the hospital

"I have to say you managed them quite well" Katarina praised him

"'I couldn't have done it myself' you mean" Talon voiced her thoughts mocking her a little. But she wasn't laughing.

"Better watch your tongue shadow's blade" the assassin warned him "or I'll have to take care of it myself" Talon sighed

"See? We can never have a normal conversation" Katarina snorted ¿why would she want a normal conversation? "This is why I didn't want to come here".

"Yeah about that" she started "why are you here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said that you wouldn't follow anyone's orders aside my father's" the assassin stated "then you should have left the moment when you find out Swain give the order" Talon turned his gaze from her "but you came anyway, why?" Talon sighed in defeat.

"Because you are your father's daughter" Katarina raised an eyebrow "since he is not here you are the only way I have to prove my loyalty to him, so if you come I'll come to" she started to grow worried for some reason

"I'm not a little girl that needs protection you know?"

"No but if what you said was true whatever Swain has hidden here scares him" the assassin widened her eyes, she didn't say that he was afraid but, it would explain a few things "and we both know Swain doesn't scares easily, so I come with you or…"

"Stop"

"What? Weren't you the one…"he was interrupted

"Not you, that!" Talon turned his gaze to where she was pointing and saw hundreds of 'stop' labels in the walls…written in blood

"What the hell?" Talon examined the labels closer and discovered that many more of 'make it stop', 'please stop it' and even 'I'm sorry,' but the strangest one was 'don't open the door'.

"Who the fuck did this?" while in most of the times Katarina would feel impressed now she was feeling…something akin to unpleasant.

"Well that's why we are here don't we? Let's split you take this floor and I'll take the second, we'll meet here in ten minutes and then we'll go to the first lower floor ok?

"Ok" to tell the truth, right now the assassins didn't like the idea of splitting but…they didn't know why.

Talon disappeared above the stairs leading to the second floor, while Katarina explored the cafeteria, and there she found the corpses of nearly a dozen of men and woman in robes that would be white if it wasn't for the blood.

"Those must be the scientists"

She got closer to examine their wounds and discover something hideous.

They had all the same wounds; there were some kind of abrasions that looked like cuts all over their bodies, two knifes on each ear and black eyes hanging out of their skulls.

"Wait" she examined the rest of the bodies and indeed, they all had the same eyes, perfectly black sclera, iris and pupil. She also noticed that one of the female bodies had something on her right ear that wasn't a knife but a key tied in a thin chain. With a bit of effort she took it out and noticed it wasn't damaged. She put it in her pocket and went to explore the offices.

Most of them were empty, except for some that had more corpses and torn paper all over the floor. She was about to give up with the offices until she found one with a few papers that weren't torn. She started reading them, and didn't understood a thing.

'Maybe I should have studied at the academy?' she thought ashamed.

However the last two papers had something that called her attention, one had references of the project Metuas Diem and the other showed plans of some kind of exoskeletal device. Apparently, that thing allowed the user to survive the effects of the Metuas Diem's drug by giving the body the ability of regenerate the damaged tissue and removing poison of it.

'But, if they managed to create something that could keep the user alive why did Swain say that the project was a failure?' Katarina only got more confused, none of this made any sense.

" _S…t...ie"_ mumbles started echoing in her head. She got into stance and wielded her daggers.

"I know you're there!" the mumbles were becoming louder each past second, there were too many voices at once. She focused, and managed to catch one word.

" _Sweetie"_

'That voice' it was a voice she hadn't thought about in a long time.

The assassin turned in direction of the voice so fast that her spine screamed in protest. And when she saw the owner of said voice, her heart froze.

In front of her stood a woman of no more than 1.80 meters, with long snow white hair, orange eyes and was wearing a long black dress with crimson patterns that covered all her body except the center of her ample bosom.

" _Sweetie"_ the woman repeated. By this point Katarina's eyes were watering deeply, yet her expression remained shocked.

"M-mom?"


	4. Chapter 3 The madhouse

Chapter 3

The madhouse

"¿M-mom?" Katarina dropped her daggers without noticing.

" _Sweetie"_ the woman kept repeating and the tears kept falling from the assassin's eyes.

'It can't be her, can it?' she wondered with hope filling her heart.

The woman in front of her raised an arm to reach her and Katarina slowly followed suit, not aware of what she was doing. Just when their fingers were about to touch, the woman spoke again

" _Sweetie…why…did you…killed me?"_ when she heard this Katarina looked at the woman flabbergasted, then the woman turned her sight down and so did the assassin, and saw her right hand stabbing a kitchen knife on the woman's stomach.

The sight horrified Katarina, but the sight she had when she returned her eyes to the woman made her heart stop.

Because now the woman had lost stare and started bleeding violently from her eyes, nose and mouth.

" _Murder"_ the woman said spiting blood. To hear her mother saying that broke her cold heart. She tried to utter a response but all that went out of her mouth was

"N-n-o…mommy, I-I didn't …"

" _¡MURDER!"_ the woman screamed, not with her voice, but with dozens of other voices that Katarina never heard, but somehow knew exactly who they belonged.

They were the voices of all the people she killed; men, women, even children.

" _MURDER!"_

" _MURDER!"_

" _Open the door"_

" _MURDER!"_

The screams were getting louder, their hate thicker. Katarina was feeling something she never felt before. It was hideous, she wanted to scream but the feeling was literally suffocating her. She could feel their pain staining her soul. Their words were reaching a place she thought was closed forever.

Their words…were reaching…her heart.

No, they weren't just reaching it, they were destroying it.

Her horror expression never abandoned her face. The waterfalls of tears falling of her eyes never ceased. Maybe that's why she didn't notice when her mother's blood flooded the whole offices. And the screams seemed to have no end. So she was currently drowning on a pool of dense blood with tears flooding her wide opened eyes and surrounded by hateful screams. Yet she wasn't aware of any of this, she only knew one thing:

Pain, there was so much pain stinging just in the middle of the chest area threatening with consuming her. And at this point all she had left was her survival instinct, and it was telling her one thing.

Stop the pain.

So without thinking it even once, she reached one of the knives of the belt on her leg and pointed the tip to the source of the pain, and started making pressure.

But the knife did not move.

Almost with desperation, she applied more pressure with similar results. She could almost feel something holding her wrist, like a ha…¡SLAP!

Her head shot to the right and saw she was still in the offices.

"¡Wake up already!" Talon's voice reached her confu…¡SLAP! His palm connected with her face a little harder than before, so much she actually took a few steps back. Katarina then took the chance to analyze the situation.

'It was an illusion' she thought and then noticed that the fact she was pointing a knife to her chest was real.

By instinct she dropped the knife and then lifted her gaze at her partner.

"¿What happened?" she asked still a little dizzy.

"You're back" the relief on the shadow's blade was clearly visible.

"I think I am, and what do you mean by 'back'?" she asked trying to dispel the remains of her dizziness.

"Well I guess that's the question, right? All I know is that I found you standing in the middle of the room about to stab yourself in the heart, so I came and saved you" he summarized with a bit of smugness in the last part, which clicked something on Katarina's mind. So she shortened the distance between them and

¡SLAP!

"¡Ow! What was that about?!" Talon shouted to her

"You owed me one" the assassin replied in a non-caring manner.

"Wha…? It was for waking you up!"

"Not the second one. And still what gives the right to slap me for any motive?" she stated merely stating the facts "so you should be happy I just hit you back instead of punishing you accord to your crime."

Talon was about to give her a sharp response but then he shut his mouth and sighed in defeat.

'I'll never understand her' he thought "so what happened to you then?"

"Well I'm not really sure" the assassin replied not wanting to remember what she saw ever again "I just saw some blurry illusions, I didn't knew what I was doing then"

"So you too" Talon replied with suspicion.

"You saw something to?" Katarina asked shocked "what was it?"

"Actually I was going to ask you the same" he replied but she just scowled venomously.

"I don't want to tell you" she said with finality.

"And what if just tell you the same?"

"Then it's fine to me" the assassin replied slightly irritated. Talon understood why she didn't want to tell her story but, in his case, he had to admit he would like to take that out of him.

Also he couldn't keep one detail in particular.

"I was checking on the patient's rooms…"

 _Flashback: second floor_

Talon was currently walking through the hallways connecting the rooms of the patients. They were small with just one bed, one desk and a door leading to a bathroom. Most of them were just gathering dust remaining untouched all those years. But others, for Talon's interest, were upside down. Like if Gnar had destroyed it trying to find his boomerang.

Talon chuckled at this thought. He keep passing the rooms wondering what would leave the rooms like that and what's more, why would it leave the other rooms untouched.

He got the answer to the first question when he found one body on the last room of the hallway. But his attention quickly abandoned him when he saw more blood inscriptions written on the walls. They were overlapping each other to the point they were difficult to read, but Talon managed to pull out the most important parts.

"Must neutralize the patient zero, the patient zero will kill us all, patient zero this, patient zero that and…" Talon looked closer to make sure he didn't misread "don't open the door" he said with curiosity 'what door?' his thoughts were interrupted when he heard running steps behind him. He turned around and with lightning speed burst out of the room only to find that the architecture of the building had changed. Now it looked like made of bricks instead of a cave.

But Talon didn't have time to analyze the structure because he was more interested in the man he heard before. He was standing in the hallway ten meters away from him wearing a hooded cloak that obscured his face.

The figure, seeing him, turned around and started walking deeper through the hallway which got lost in the sight.

"¡Wait!" Talon yelled chasing after it, but the more he ran the farthest it became and the darker the hallway got. 'What the hell is going on here?' he thought growing frustrated.

The hallway kept getting darker to the point he could no longer see. He was about to stop but out of nowhere he tripped and started to fall.

He kept falling for several minutes although he should have hit the in the first seconds. The fall itself felt like a nightmare to him. No, it wasn't a nightmare or a dream, or maybe it was more like a…memory?

Suddenly he started to hear something, it was like a wail. The sound slowly got louder till it became a cry, the cry of a child.

He tried to locate the source of the sound but only saw darkness. Then without reason, he opened his mouth and the cry started to emanate from it. He couldn't understand why, all he knew was what he felt. Fear, sadness, betrayal, anger, helpless.

The emotions were so strong that he started crying for real, never in his life he felt like this before. He started to remember, yes he felt like that once, but when? What happened?

Silence

The whole world went silent, the cry, the emotions, his thoughts stopped. He could only think of being dead.

The darkness started to fade and with that his conscience started to return. First came his senses, he could see a floor of bricks around him and a circle of light above him with the cloaked man peering from it. Then came his reason, he realized he hit the bottom of his fall and that man was the one who throw him down there. The man revealed his face: he had dark red hair, beard and moustache; he had green eyes and a tattoo darkening his left eye.

'General' with the recognition Talon recovered his emotions, but now that man's face only caused him fear, not of him but of being abandoned alone.

'No, please not again, help' Talon extended a small arm to try to reach him and as if on cue, the man started to close door of the circle of light, but not before saying one last thing to him

"Failure" and with that he close the door leaving a five years old Talon crying alone with the darkness.

He spent an unspecified amount of time wailing before listening to a whisper on the distance. It was too far away but the child managed to catch some words.

" _No…other one….open… save her"_ Talon woke up in the middle of the hallway panting after hearing this. He couldn't understand what happened or what those words meant, but the last ones kept resonating on his head for a few moments.

Save her.

Without thinking it, he ran to the first floor only to find Katarina standing in the middle of an office with a blank expression and a knife dangerously close to her heart.

 _Flashback ends_

"So then I just hurry to stop you from killing yourself" Talon ended "you're welcome by the way"

Katarina was speechless, 'why did i get the creepiest part?' she thought at first. She barely understood what did he saw or why. From her experience it should be some kind of memory but, to see her own father doing that to him. She was aware of how much did Talon respect him. But it was impossible that that was exactly what happened.

"Things are really fucked up here" Katarina commented

"Tell me something I don't know" he said back "but it doesn't matter, we're leaving"

"What? No, I'm going to end this" the assassin said firmly

"I don't believe you wanting to spend another second here!"

"Well I don't know you but I'm not going to leave whatever messed up with my mind alive" she stated "don't you want to take revenge on whoever put those images on your brain?"

Talon had to admit she had a point. Also like hell he was allowing her to go there alone.

"Well I don't think I'll be able to change your mind so…"

"See? Now what's our next step?"

"Probably we should exchange info, which I already did so what did you find out?"

"Well I think the scientists may have had illusions to" she said "none of their wounds seem to be of battle, I think that whatever they saw made them want to do that to themselves" Talon heard her and went to examine the bodies himself.

"And what do you think of that?" he said pointing to the abrasions they all had.

"If you ask me, I said it was the same thing that made their eyes black" she answered

"Maybe you are right ¿Anything else?"

"Yeah remember what Swain said about the project being a failure? Well he was lying"

"¿How so?"

"I found these ones" she showed him the plans of the exoskeleton "unless I'm mistaken it speaks about how it can keep the user of the drug alive".

"Hmm" he said thoughtful.

"What? Do you have something in mind?"

"I was thinking about the writings I saw upstairs, 'patient zero'. It matches with some of the references shown here"

"What does it mean?"

"It isn't a term used on biological weapons; it means the first patient of an epidemic"

"So then the drug was some kind of disease?" she asked, making sure she was right. There seem to be a lot of shit going on there.

"If it was a disease they weren't creating a weapon here but a cure" the thief stated with suspicion. Then looked at the state of the scientists, and then connected the dots.

"I think they were trying to create a weapon, but maybe the reason they canceled the project was because things got out of their hands and it turned into a disease. That maybe explain the state the scientists are, when they got here they got infected" he explained.

"Wait, If it is a disease that means we are infected?" she asked disgusted.

"It is a posibility, lets just hope that we don't end as bad as them" they looked at the bodies with worry.

"Well that it's something but it still doesn't explain why they were sent here in the first place or what happened with the crimson team" Katarina observed

"Yes but I think that's the reason we are here don't we?" Talon stated again and then gestured her partner to move to the next step of their plan, said the next lower floor. When they were in front of the stairs Katarina had an idea, a very creepy one.

"Do you think that 'patient zero' is behind all of this?" she suddenly asked and Talon looked at her with questioning gaze.

"What made you think that?"

"Just a hunch" she didn't mention it was the same feeling she had when she had the illusion of her mother. They just went down the stairs to face whatever they encounter.

...

Darkness

Silence

Emptiness

Could this be… death? Am I dying?

"You are not dying majesty, at least not yet"

A voice, where did I heard that voice before?

"You can think of that later, now I must give you a message"

Well I don't have anything better to do so shot.

"You are recovering your spark, that's good, you'll need it" I can feel whoever it is smirking "this is because one of my children is about to wake up, and someone has to teach him the invention of living"

It remembers me of a movie I regret seeing.

"You have to be that one, if it is anyone else the consequences would be troublesome for both of us"

Both of us huh? And who are you anyway? He is smirking again

"You'll find out on your own, for now rest, hard days await…majesty" I can feel its presence fade, and mine back into sleep, thinking of what I been told.


	5. Chapter 4: ¿Did you opened the door?

**I give up, you dont wan't a Lesath crossover? then you'll get a pure LOL fanfic**

 **CHAPTER UPDATED (actually all i changed was one word but... updeted neverthless)**

* * *

Chapter 4

¿Did you opened the door?

Katarina was following Talon down the stairs of the place that dared to play with their minds, with their resolves settled on gutting whoever was behind this.

With each lower step the assassin got more and more anxious, but not in the way she was used to. Each time her foot touched another step, an image of her mother spitting blood or calling her murder appeared in her mind for a fraction of second, making her resolve flinch more and more. And when she tried to push those images away, they just returned with double force to the point she decide to ignore them and hope they'll eventually fade.

But it proved to be an impossible task and she found herself fighting tears and cursing her weakness.

Talon wasn't in a better situation; he was currently trying to dispel a particular "scene" of his own fantasies. He just couldn't get the image of the Grand general calling him a failure and then abandoning him out of his head. He never had even the slightest picture of him doing that and it was obviously not a memory. So he could only wonder why he saw those images, but the lower he got into the madhouse, the more logical seemed one possibility he would never have thought about.

Maybe there was true in them.

He didn't want to doubt of the general, hell he didn't even see a reason to do it, but something in his head keep telling him not to thrust him, that in the end he will betray him.

He hated that, and with those depressing images our duo got to the lower floor.

Katarina had enough of walking in the dark and located the light switch and was about to turn it on when Talon spoke to her.

"I don't think there is…"

She decided to ignore him and flicked the switch turning on the lights.

"…power…well that's disturbing" he said quietly

"Well I know that is strange that this part of the building still has energy but I think you are exaggerating" the assassin answered not looking in his direction.

"Not that, THAT" Katarina went to his side and then saw it.

"Oh, that" they were currently at the entrance of the cells of the serious case patients, but the creepy part now were the bodies soaking in a pool of dried blood across the whole hall.

They were nearly a dozen; they were dressed in some kind of light reddish armor and most of them had short swords in their hands.

"The crimsons. What in the world could do that to them?" Katarina asked shocked that their elite forces could be trashed this badly. Talon moved to the closest body to examine it while Katarina took the surroundings.

"This one has the neck sliced and his right limbs severed" he took a better look to where the arm was cut "actually it doesn't seem like a cut wound; the flesh is ripped not severed as well as the bones, they are crushed" he said wondering what could cause such wounds "he also has three stab wounds, two on each lung and one on the heart" he turned the body on its back and noticed three more stab wounds "this ones are aligned with the ones in the front which means the stab pierced from one side and went out from the other" he gave a quick look at the rest of the bodies "and I guess all of them have similar wounds, did you found anything else Kata?" the thief asked his partner but received only silence "Kata?"

Talon looked around and saw her at the bottom of the hall looking troubled at the wall near the roof

"Hey what are you looking…?" he had to swallow his words when he saw in the assassin's direction.

Because at no more than eight meters above the hallway there was an enormous message on the wall. As you can guess, it was written in blood.

"Fuck me sideways" Talon commented, and then Katarina read aloud.

"Blades of Noxus hear my warning: one of you has the power to release what was once sealed, reveal what was hidden and open was once was closed. Open the door and you'll earn an ally, open the door and I'll reward you forever, OPEN THE DOOR and I'll let you see another dawn. But fail and you'll beg me to let you die.

A plea, I will never grant, for the rest of days"

A tense silence fell on both of them. The blood on the message was still fresh and that only meant one thing.

It was written recently.

The message included also some arrows that pointed down the wall to a security camera with an intermittent red light right above the next hallway.

Without saying anything saying anything Talon moved to the camera and connected it with a small computer he pulled out of his coat surprising Katarina.

"Since when you use that kind of stuff?" she said earning a smirk from her companion.

"Kata many things can be said about me but not that I'm unadaptable" he said typing something on the computer.

"Whatever, and by the way next time you call me Kata I'll rip you a new one" the assassin warned him.

He sighed "Here we go…"

"What? Is not like we are friends or something"

"Is just I don't see the point of jumping at every chance of behaving like a bitch" after saying that the temperature dropped to subzero, but Talon felt more tired than intimidated. He had felt Katarina's killing intent so many times that it didn't affected him anymore.

"It seems that your blades are not the only thing you've been sharpening" Katarina stated coldly "you better watch yourself cause one of this days I may want to test that sharpness, while you sleep"

"Got it" Talon said unintimidated.

"Oh no, I'm not done yet!"

"I meant the recordings of the camera" he showed her the computer. She decided to leave the matter for now and moved next to Talon to watch the video.

At first they could only see static, but the video slowly regained its image.

For the first few seconds it showed the crimson squad searching clues on the cells, then the one in charge gestured them to move to the next room.

A second later their bodies started convulsing, and a second after that they fell to the ground.

Then the video ended in more static, leaving the two shocked assassins trying to process what they just witnessed.

The first one in regaining his senses was Talon who began typing madly trying to find out wat happened after that but it was futile.

"Can you play it again? I want to check something" Katarina asked, so Talon played the video again up to the point when they were about to fall and die.

"Stop. Now zoom to the closest one" Talon obeyed and saw something he ignored, it was a slim object similar to a snake that was wrapping around the leg and the arm of one of the men.

"Is that a chain, or some kind of wire?" the thief asked

"I don't like where this is going. Ok play it again but as slow as you can"

He did as she told and played it in slow motion.

In one second the wires stabbed the men's chest five times, the next second they squeezed their arms and legs to the point they severed them, then the bodies fell to the ground and the wires retread. The thief sighed.

"Well judging by the place where the wires appeared I say they came from the secret labs ahead"

"That means that the patient zero IS the one behind all of this?" Katarina asked and Talon furrowed his eyebrows.

"A better question would be 'how are we gonna deal with him if he was able to kill our elite before they noticed'?" he asked with conflict.

"Don't worry; if you are afraid then I'll just face him al-"

"Don't start again!" Talon screamed with rage. Katarina was about to nag him but he silence her with a glare.

She knew that if he was able to do that it meant that he was deadly serious.

"Now listen, whatever that thing is it something way out of our league" she was about to give him a sharp response but he silence her again "and I'm not talking about the fact that he killed ten crimsons before they even notice, which by the way it could perfectly happen to us to and don't try to deny it, but the fact that he can mess up with our minds in ways that we never been prepared!" he yelled "to me it's making me doubt of the man I respected the most in my entire life and its growing worst each passing second" he tried to shove the feeling away with no avail "and it almost made you kill yourself!"

His words made the assassin's expression change from rage to understanding.

But still…

"Talon…" she said in pleading tone but the thief interrupted her.

"Just tell me what possible reason would you have to throw away your life just like that?" the assassin sighed.

"I told you I don't want to leave alive the guy who got into my mind"

"No, there is more to it" Talon face almost lit in realization "it's personal isn't it?" she tried to look indifferent but he saw beyond it "what did you saw earlier?" Katarina furrowed her eyebrows.

"You don't want to go there" she threatened.

"If what I saw was any indication, I know it must have been hard but you said you wouldn't let your passion for killing get in your duty's way again" he rubbed her scar with his finger. In other circumstances she would have severed his hand but she was shocked by the care on his touch "and I won't let it make you end your life" he said with all the determination he could but nevertheless she shove his hand away.

"It's not that is just…" she didn't want those words leave her mouth.

"Tell me" he said in a tone so soft that creeped Katarina for some reason.

"I'm scared ok" she admitted shocking Talon.

"What?" he asked not believing what he'd just heard.

"Are you deaf? I said I'm scared" the confession was tearing her pride apart "I haven't felt scared for a long time, hell, I even forgot how it felt like" she clenched her fists "and I don't like it, so I don't care what's down there, cause whatever happens I won't feel fear anymore" her face turned determined "and if that means I have to go there alone then so be it"

Talon didn't even know what to say. His mind went into slight shock when he saw her decided expression. He had already forgot this side of Katarina; the one of a woman with a will that could rival gods.

Then he remembered that when she decided something nothing could make her change her mind.

"I guess there's nothing else to say" he sighed "there should be an elevator at the end of the hallway, although I don't know if it still works but is the only way to the labs" he step aside and she head to the hallway.

"I'll be back before you notice" the assassin stated.

"That's not what worries me. Just try to rip him/her of too badly" Katarina snorted and walked away, oblivious that Talon was praying for her safety.

* * *

The hallway the assassin was currently walking through was long and the light was very dim not to mention the lamps were old so they were intermittent giving an even more creepy atmosphere.

The feeling Katarina had before had turned into a quiet voice that became louder with each step.

It said "don't open the door".

She identified that voice as the one that usually tells her to not kill someone so decided to ignore it.

What she couldn't ignore was the cold sweat on her face and her accelerant pulse.

'What is happening to me?' she thought wiping the sweat of her forehead, which proved to be a pointless task since she was sweating like a pig.

With a groan of frustration she finally reached the elevator and called for it, luckily it was undamaged so it worked perfectly.

When it arrived Katarina got in and noticed it had just two levels; the one she was currently in and the one to the secret labs, which was locked and could only be reached to it with a key.

Her eyes lit in realization and pulled out the key she founded in the woman's ear and tried it, it worked.

She smirked and then just waited till the elevator reached its destiny; since the labs were way far down it was the only thing she could do for a while.

" _Sweetie"_ the assassin heard, but she wasn't going to let whoever was down there mess with her again so she just ignored it.

" _You know it is impolite not to answer?"_ the voice sounded from behind her making her jump slightly; she was very aware that the image of her mother appeared behind but she didn't cared.

" _You aren't afraid of me are you?"_ she chuckled, the answer appeared in her head for a moment.

Of course she was, but that didn't matter to her, it never did.

" _I miss you"_ Katarina's eyes widened at this _"don't you miss me too?"_ she opened her mouth but the answer never came

" _If you miss me we can be together again"_ her mother stated surprising her _"just stop fighting all the time, and let IT take you"_.

The pain in her heart returned, but it was different this time. It wasn't pain for her words but for not taking her offer.

'What am I thinking!?' she nagged herself 'since when did I ever want to give up just like that!?'

The elevator arrived and almost scared, she ran out of it tripping and falling to the floor, and then listened to a last word from her mother.

" _Murder"_ the assassin snapped her head in her direction but the image had already gone.

Katarina sighed "I can't wait to get my hands on this son a bitch" she got up and walked forward.

The secret labs were a group of dozens research facilities that covered around 100m2 which consisted of labs of 10m2 divided by hermetic glass walls that could isolate the room in case of emergency.

But those weren't what interested the assassin, but the tests room on the center of those facilities.

According to the firefighter maps on the wall that was probably the place where the one that got into her mind was.

It was exactly at the center so she just had to walk in straight line and she will get there, it couldn't be simpler.

"… _don't…"_ she started to hear whispers.

" _Please…"_

"… _suicide"_

There were about ten different voices speaking low, fast and at the same time so it was hard to get what they were saying, but with each step, they became louder and louder till she could understand two of them.

" _It has been too much time"_

" _Run while you can!"_

" _What possible reason would I have to hurt her?"_

" _It's a trick!"_

" _I wasn't dishonest in the message"_

" _Don't open the door"_

" _Open the door"_

Katarina was done with whoever's mind tricks so she used all she learned in her days in the league to mute them. She succeeded, partially.

The whispers continued to the point they passed from irritating to worrying, despite she would never admit it.

In fact she was so distracted by them that she didn't noticed when she arrived to the center.

It was a huge circular room with a single white wall that reached the ceiling, and a double door at the bottom.

Katarina sighed 'it's now or never' she thought.

She opened the door… all turned black

When she regained the sight the first thing she noticed was that she was in front of a panel with almost a hundred buttons and switches.

Next was that she was being assaulted with uncountable more whispers and now cries of pain.

Now it was almost impossible to mute them so she could only try to ignore them, which only seemed to make them louder.

" _Sweetie…"_

'Oh no, not again! Please!' the assassin actually pleaded, and it worked like charm because all the voices stopped.

She instinctively looked around trying to find out what could possibly do that.

'Oh yes, the thing I'm about to kill'

She examined the room closer. There were several screens placed all along the outer circular wall along with keyboards and other devices, the inner wall was a circular glass panel that showed another room placed ten meters lower the one she was currently in.

She leaned closer to look what was there and saw several wires of all sizes hanging from the ceiling to floor and connected to some kind of circular machine. And on the center she could see the body of her mother.

Katarina blinked and rubbed her eyes. When she looked again the light was still so dim that she couldn't see who was in the machine.

'I'm getting sick of this' the assassin thought 'I'll enjoy ripping this thing apart'.

That's what she thought, but then realized she had no idea of how to get down there.

Thinking, she turned again to the panel looking for something that could help her.

"Let's see: fire alarm, no; power levels, no; security cameras, maybe; and… what do we have here?" she said looking at a red lever covered by a broken plastic protection above a lock with a key inserted.

"D.O.O.R" she smirked evilly "well you only live once" she turned the key and the lever started glowing in a red light.

Without thinking it even once, she pulled it.

And as before everything turned black.

But when she regained the sight she wasn't assaulted by voices, but by something far worst.

It was fear.

Thick, palpable and suffocating fear that made her hard to process what was going on.

She couldn't move and could barely breathe. She had to use all her now weakened willpower to analyze the situation.

She somehow had gotten to the bottom of the room she saw before and was currently standing in front of the circular machine. But what caught her attention was the figure that was standing in front of it and backwards to her.

It had long black hair that covered its back but judging for its bulky build it was a man, he was dressed only in ragged black pants.

Katarina's first impression was that she was watching the reaper's back.

'This is just another trick' she tried to recompose herself 'He is right there just do it!' she tried to reach her daggers but the only thing she achieved was to open stiffly her hands 'FUCK! What's happening to me?!'

But that was the least of her problems, because now the figure was slowly turning its head to her.

This action made Katarina choke, unable to breathe properly for a few seconds.

The killer point was when he stood face to face with her.

Her heartbeat was erratic before but now it had severe problems avoiding a heart attack.

She blinked.

Now he was standing half step from her.

The assassin was almost sweating bullets (freezing cold bullets) and was now reduced to pray in her mind that this… being would have mercy on her.

"¿Did you opened the door?" he suddenly asked, almost giving her another heart attack.

Yet the neutral tone he used made her fear dim a little for some reason, and while it wasn't enough to form words she could use the chance to analyze his face.

The first thing she noticed was his eyes, because they were too similar to the ones from the scientists; they had black stains threatening to cover the entire surface on the left one and only the half of the right one.

But what really got her attention were his irises. They were sapphire blue with changing patterns like a kaleidoscope, and they were shining with a cold light. Also they were the brightest source of light in that room.

That's why she couldn't see well the rest of his face, but she could distinguish a nasty scar on his right cheek.

"¿Did you opened the door?" he repeated a bit more sternly.

'¿S-so what if-f I d-did?' that's what she would have said if it wasn't for the fear that obscured her thoughts.

"¿Are you afraid?" he asked in a softer tone, but as before the only answer he got was trebling eyes and a mental curse.

The man sighed and slowly started reaching for her.

Katarina closed her eyes ready for whatever he had in mind, being death or a painful interrogation, or both.

'No, I'll take it with dignity' she started to begrudgingly open her eyes, but they shot opened when she felt where his hand ended.

It was caressing… her décolletage.

Her mind didn't processed what was happening for the first few seconds, and then she returned her eyes to his only to notice that they hadn't changed even a bit; they were still emotionless and glowing with power.

She was so confused that she didn't noticed when the man took of her jacket. And just when he started untying her corset she had a panic attack.

'Nonono you-you can't do this to me! I'm fucking killing you!' the only reaction she obtained was tears falling from her eyes 'fuck, fuck, FUCK!'

The man had finished with her corset and then unhooked her bra letting her breasts bounce free.

By this point the assassin was shivering and weeping. If the humiliation of being stripped against her will wasn't enough she had an inexplicable fear that prevent her from even lift a finger about it to ad effect.

Meanwhile the man was currently just standing there, staring at her exposed chest for a while now with no visible change in his neutral expression.

As the minutes passed the man kept staring and Katarina's humiliation kept growing as well as the new blush on her face.

Then suddenly, the man raised both hands and started fondling her breasts making the assassin gasp.

She could count on one hand the times she allowed someone do that to her, ok maybe she'd need more fingers, but still the hands of that man were surely something else; despite his never changing neutral expression she could fell care in her touch, and absolutely no malicious intentions.

But it didn't make her feel even a tiny better.

Actually the fact that she didn't dislike it made her feel far worst.

'What the hell is happening to me?!' she nagged herself drawing out more tears 'it has to be his doing; I am not like this… I'M NOT!' that's what she thought but she just keep getting more and more wet

Katarina's eyes were now lost not looking at anything in particular so she didn't notice when the man lowered his hand to her groin and only gasped when she felt his fingers on her…

'This isn't happening, is just another trick, it can't be real' she tried to comfort herself without much result.

By now his index and middle fingers digging as deep as they could in her womb while his right hand was still massaging her left breast; she was sure it couldn't get worse.

He lowered his head and started sucking her right nipple.

The assassin was trying her best to keep her mouth shut but the sudden action made her moan audibly.

She quickly put her hand over her mouth pretending she wasn't heard.

The man kept… pleasuring her for a couple of minutes more and at some point she felt her lower mouth walls closing around his fingers.

'No, hell, fuck, god damn it NO! I'm not some fucking fox whore! I… I won't give in!' she settled all her willpower in a desperate attempt to hold what was left of her dignity; she absolutely couldn't let her body yield

But as if on cue, the man started sucking her nipple and fondling her breast with more vigor and moving his fingers inside her womb in circular motions.

Katarina had to cover her mouth again trying to avoid her moans going out, but while she couldn't avoid that at least she will save the remain the rests of her pride by restraining from…

The man pulled out his fingers and twisted her clitoris.

The action was so unexpected and the pleasure so overwhelming that they broke down her defenses preventing her from restraining any longer.

So with a scream of pleasure and mostly painful humiliation…

…she came.

The horror and shock in the assassin's eyes as she could only wait for her love juices to stop leaking out was palpable. But it was soon replaced with sorrow as she realized what she had just done.

'How am I going to explain this?' she started crying with grater force 'how can leave my house when everyone knows?' but the answer was obvious; she wouldn't.

At this point the only reason she was sobbing and not wailing was because the fear still had her paralyzed.

Then the man stood up again and looked at her directly into her eyes. She noticed that his eyes still hadn't changed, while hers must have been completely broken.

The man lifted the hand that had been inside her womb and showed it to her. It was all wet from her love juices. She widened her eyes a bit at the amount he managed to pull from her, a fact that made her feel even more ashamed.

Just when she was wondering what would happen next he took her jaw with his other hand and held the wet one close to her mouth.

When Katarina understood his intentions her fear renewed as well as her tears. She tried to move again but it was in vain as before, and the hardness of his gaze left no other option.

Whit defeat she closed her eyes and slowly started opening her mouth.

First she felt his fingers entering and then the taste of her essence. It tasted… funny, not entirely good but not bad either.

But the taste wasn't the important; she was being fed with her own juices! The situation went from bad to worse to irreparable; the shards of her broken pride were becoming dust.

She closed her lips fearfully of what he would do if she didn't swallow it all.

When she was sure that he got it all she swallowed audibly and he got his fingers out.

The assassin prayed that it was over, but gods seemed to have throw a curse on her, because the man started to pull down her pants and panties to the point her womb and her butt were entirely visible.

'Damn it! Just when is he planning to stop!?' she cried but something was telling her that it wouldn't be soon.

He started to fondle her butt with the same careful and unique touch as before, digging his fingers in the soft flesh and occasionally pinching it making her yelp and immediately covering her mouth. For some reason that was more embarrassing than the moans.

But she started moaning again when he found out that her tail bone was strangely sensitive.

He teased that area for a few minutes and then moved behind her. She briefly wondered why he did that but quickly regretted asking when she felt something sharp clutching her right butt cheek, making her yelp loudly.

As usual she covered her mouth and then realized what happened.

'Did he… bit me?'

She was answered when he started to chew both of her cheeks, drawing more moans from the assassin.

'Wait, since when I get aroused by being chewed there?!' for some reason her mind managed to gather some curiosity aside from fear and shame. So she tried to focus on the sensation that he produced on her despite the shame that it caused to her.

Her brain was immediately assaulted by a strong tingle of… (she would never use the world but it was pleasure) and noticed that there were small electric shocks each time he chewed her.

'So that's how he does it, he is just messing with my nerves' she thought feeling slightly better; the pleasure she felt wasn't entirely natural.

The man gave one last lick on each of her butt cheeks and then moved in front of her again.

He just kneeled in front of her and just stared at her womb, embarrassing her even more.

Katarina realized whit horror what came next.

After a few minutes he gave a lick along the surface of her mouth walls, while twisting her clitoris whit his right hand.

As before she tried to stifle her moans but this time her nipples erect and started throbbing painfully. As if on cue his hands moved to her nipples and started twisting them.

Her hand in her mouth did little to silence her cries of pleasure.

After a few minutes, just but pure coincidence, the man's tongue moved to her G-spot but the loud scream coming from the assassin's mouth betrayed her. Now he started sucking that place with all his might as well as twitching her erected nipples.

Katarina felt it coming, and all her willpower was nothing compared to it. Her mouth walls wrapped tightly around his tongue, it was getting closer, closer.

She came.

She felt even more humiliated than the first time; he had just take the remains of her broken pride and threw them on the bonfire.

Like before he stood up and stare into her eyes. She expected to show her his hand covered in her juices, but it was worse than she thought.

He opened her mouth and her juices were inside it.

'P-please, I-I'm sorry-y, but… I won't' she furrowed her lips as wanting to close them as much as possible. But the man just roughly took her chin making her open it for a second. Before she could close it the man brushed his lips against hers.

She could feel her juices inside her mouth again… as well as his tongue reaching almost her throat.

The man' remained emotionless. Katarina's were filled with horror and tears but soon they became lifeless.

If she had any pride before, now it was gone forever.

He separated their lips and then spoke to her.

"¿Do you feel better?" she couldn't imagine why he would ask that after practicaly raping her, and the fear in the assassin's mind should have prevented her from answering but… that was it; the humiliation she felt had overshadowed her fear.

"¿Did you opened the door?" he asked again.

It was enough for her to nod stiffly at her question.

She didn't expect his eyes to light like the north star.

"Thank you, I'm indebt" he walked behind her and she could hear his footsteps moving away until they stopped for a second.

"I'm Aaron by the way" and with that he kept walking until she couldn't hear his steps anymore.

A few seconds after his departure the weariness of her humiliation and coming twice hit her, so she fell to her knees and then to her back.

Before falling unconscious she asked to the air in a neutral voice.

"¿What was all that?".


	6. Chapter 5 A shattered nation

Chapter 5

A shattered nation

 _"You'll find out on your own, for now rest, hard days await…majesty"_ the voice resounded in Wukong's mind for an unspecified amount of time, and after it disappeared he finally felt his body again.

To say that he was sleeping would be completely wrong. His mind entered in some kind of hibernation state that he couldn't achieve even with all his meditating sessions with Yi.

He started regaining his senses, which didn't help him much in waking up. His head had to be resting in the most expensive pillows of all Demacia.

He inhaled a spasm and his nose caught a scent of cherry.

'They even perfumed them?' with all his strength he moved his hand to one of the pillows and gave it a soft squeeze, earning a soft moan 'wait a moment' he connected the dots.

Heavenly soft, cherry perfume and moan. There was no mistake; his head was currently between Ahri's breasts.

'Heh, if I tell anyone that this isn't the first time it happens no one would believe me' he thought, and remembered it was pointless to fight sleep when you are between the most coveted jewels of all Valoran so he was about to return to his nap when a question hit him.

Just how did he end there?

Then the images flashed on his head.

The rift, fighting Yi, Xerath's corpse acting strange and jumping to shield Ahri from the explosion it caused.

'What the hell happened?' with god like strength, he forced him to awake. Then noticed he somehow had tangled with Ahri's tails.

'She probably wanted to protect me as well, or at least that's what I hope she tried to do' he carefully untangled her tails and her legs from him. When he was done he sat on the bed and took a look to the surroundings.

'This is Ionia's hospital' he thought "how did I end here?"

"You were brought" a voice sounded from behind him, he turned around.

"Master Karma? Wait, what happened? All I remember was having a match and… Yi was there too. Is he ok? And what about the rest?" he stood.

"Calm down" she put her hands on his shoulders making him sit again "everyone is safe, the emergency system activated on time and all the champions entered on stasis and then evacuated"

"I see" he calmed a little "but how many time was I asleep?"

"You'll see, the stasis placed on the champions was still experimental; it should have lasted for an hour of two but we couldn't lift it for three months" Wukong widened his eyes.

"Damn. Sooo anything important happened while we were out?" her gaze turned grim "master Karma?"

"I think it would be better to tell you when everyone is awake" he sighed.

"Ok, ok, you are the boss. You heard her vixen, stop pretending" he twisted her nose painfully with his fingers, making her eyes open instantly.

"Ow, ow, ow! What the hell monkey?!" Ahri said massaging his swore nose.

"As I said before, is not time to play being asleep" he said perfectly straight.

"I meant why you had to pinch my nose like that?" she groaned.

"Because I have already told you to not do 'Ahri stuff' while I'm asleep" she choked on her saliva.

"I-I-I don't know what are you talking about" she blushed and looked away "I was a-asleep as well it m-m-must have been u-unconscious action. Yes that's it"

"None of us could move due to the stasis, and I remember well having your head against my chest when I shield you" Ahri smiled dreamily at this memory.

"And what's more, you had been awake a while before me. You think I don't believe you capable of placing my head between your breasts TWICE?" the vixen decided she had to defend herself somehow.

She pouted angry and said "are you saying that my assets are that unpleasant? That isn't the way to treat a-kya!" she couldn't finish cause Wukong suddenly headlocked her with an arm and rubbed her hair painfully with the other.

"¡Don't play smart with me, I already told you that you look even dumber!"

Meanwhile Karma looked slightly irritated at just one more fight for their record. It looked like Wu would win this one as well leaved the scoreboard in 29/5 in favor of Wukong.

She couldn't say she wasn't getting tired of it, but time had taught her that they wouldn't stop doing it for anything.

She cleared her throat, remembering that she was still there "now if you are both awake and ready, I must lead you to my office, the master Yi awaits you there to see what happened when you were in stasis.

Wu groaned quietly and Ahri chuckled at this; she guessed it was because Yi had awoken before him.

"Well I fear the one who makes the master wait so…" he stood and offered his hand to Ahri. Her cheeks gained a shade of pink at this.

"Just what are your intentions, monkey king?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Take it and you'll find out" Wukong grinned like only he knew how, oblivious of the effect that smile caused on the fox.

Although, she masked it with her trademark playful smile and took his hand. Then yelped audibly when Wu lifted her bridal style,

"W-wha?" she sputtered with red cheeks.

"Don't you remember? If I died only once I'd carry you like this for a week" he said smiling, following Karma out of the hospital.

"But, you didn't die, the explosion of Xerath's body hardly counts as legal" she scorned herself for pointing that; she had actually dreamed with him carrying her like that it wasn't time for playing honest!

"Well maybe but thanks to that we will never know if I had died for real, so is it's only fair this way don't you think?" she smiled at this; it wasn't her usual flirty smile but an abashed one, the one she rarely made.

And the one that he liked the most.

"Fair huh?" he nodded "then it seems we have to stop by the greengrocery" he looked at her with wide eyes.

"You mean…?"

"Aha, we are having mango pie tonight" she giggled when fake anime tears fell from his eyes.

"HEEEEEEEEELLL YEAH!" he yelled to the skies "have I told you how much I love you?" she blushed crimson at this.

"Um, no" she said 'but say as much as you like… why didn't I say it aloud?' she thought.

As they passed the streets of the village, they noticed something disturbing.

Some of the houses were under repair; all of them looked like a meteor hit them and burned, some of them worse than others.

"What happened here?" Ahri asked "someone attacked?" she sounded worried.

"Have patience, we'll explain everything when we arrived" Karma reassured her.

"Yeah calm down vixen, if you worry too much you'll get wrinkles" he tried to joke but she could feel he was tense.

After a few minutes they spotted the house of the illuminated.

As an elder of one of the 20 provinces of Ionia, Karma had her own small mansion. It was two stories high and was built with something akin to the traditional Japanese architecture; it was painted with different shades of green with golden ornaments, like the Ionian crest that stood proudly on the main doors.

They entered the building and after a climb of stairs and a few turns they were at the doors of Karma's office. All the way till there, Wukong had been carrying Ahri like if she weighted a feather's pillow, and she rested in his arms with the same comfort.

They opened the doors and entered. The office insides were exactly what you would expect from the outside; it had 5 square meters, with a floor made of pale brown wood, wooden walls made of a darker color, a few square lamps to illuminate at night and a big panoramic window for day. It had various bookshelves filled with books and scrolls, two sofas and two chairs aside from the desk one which was designed with the same fashion as the rest of the office.

In short, it looked like an oriental version of the oval office.

On one of the chairs was the master Yi sitting with crossed arms dressed in a dark green kimono with tree patterns and his trademark helmet.

He noticed their arrival "my pupil, I'm glad to see you ok".

"Aww, don't tell me you were worried about me master-chan!" he said teasingly.

"I was. What's your point?" he responded with a painfully blank face. The monkey king was about to retaliate but the words died in his mouth when the hardness on his voice sent a shiver down his spine.

He hung his head in shame "nothing master just playing around" he mumbled earning a snicker from Ahri.

"As I thought, so master Karma you were going to tell us what happened while we were out?" he asked. The illuminated nodded and motioned them to sit. Wukong placed Ahri on the chair on the left while he sat on the one on the center with Yi at his right and Karma on the desk chair.

"Now please look at the screen" an almost flat TV appeared from the roof. Ahri could almost hear Wukong's thoughts whining 'why don't we have one of those?'

"As I already told you, the last match of the institute of war ended abruptly when Xerath's body exploded after starting to act strange. Because of this the summoner's rift has been destroyed and won't be operating for the next year at least." Images of the razed rift appeared on the screen.

"There they go the even matches" the monkey chuckled at the fox's sarcasm.

"The institute itself has suspended all matches though, to give summoner's and champions a few months to recover from what happened next, but they should be resuming in a few days"

"And here I was, hoping I would finally go on vacation" Ahri sighed.

"Nonsense, we had enough rest already. I can't wait to show Yi what I had for him!"

"What do you mean?" Yi looked at him with suspicion

"Did I say something?" he looked at him with ignorant expression.

He sighed "so what was that that happened next?" Karma's face became grim which made the rest worry.

"…This is Ionia" the screen changed again and everyone gasped.

The city was currently being bombarded with what seemed to be Xerath's ultimate. Blue lightning bolts appeared from portals in the skies and fell towards the cities.

"This is Piltover" the lightnings were chaining with the various machines of the city and the city and the electric wires, reaching all the machines inside the houses.

"Bilgewater" most of the ships, docks and even some people were in fire; they ran towards the sea to turn it off.

"And Bandle" all the yordles were panicking for the initial destruction the lightnings caused. But fortunately, they managed to use some lightning rods to minimize the damage. Courtesy of Heimerdinger they suppose.

When the video stopped everyone was sharing Karma's grim face.

"I… have no words" Yi hung his head.

"That's horrible" Ahri moved a hand to her mouth "how… how many died?"

"Those you saw on the screen are a few hundreds in total but…" suddenly something clicked on Wukong's head.

"Wait, what happened to Demacia? A-a-and Noxus?" he asked.

"And who cares about Noxus?" Ahri snorted, earning a scowl from the rest plus making her cringe.

Wukong sighed "well then, what happened to them?" he asked and judging by the frustrated expression Karma made, that was the million dollar question.

"… No one knows why, but Demacia and Noxus took the worst of this phenomenon" she played another video.

This one showed the main streets of the center of the city-state being assaulted by constant bursts of lightnings, each one seeming to be even more powerful than the ones of the previous cities; they left large craters wherever they fell and the remaining energy chained to people that couldn't escape on time.

But the humbling part came when the screen showed the castle of the Lightshield family, home of the king and the prince Jarvan IV.

Nearly thousands of lightnings were falling from the sky hitting the castle in every centimeter by all possible angles. It was one of Valoran biggest buildings and it was reduced to crumble in matter of minutes.

Everyone fell in a tense silence after sawing this.

"…and Noxus?" Yi asked. Karma played one final video.

Basically it was a copy of Demacia, with the exception that the pestilential potion that circumnavigated the city was flooding the suburban area trapping many people in its thickness and conducting the energy of the lightnings giving them quick deaths.

Then the video moved to high part of the city inside the mountain, were more portals dropped more lightnings inside of it towards the people that thought they were safe inside, paying dearly for their arrogance.

Needless to say that being underground the lightnings were conducted even better than with the potion, destroying like this most of the inner structure of the caves, making them collapse over themselves.

Karma stopped the video "while most of Valoran suffered minor losses, Demacia and Noxus lost nearly half of their population. With Noxus being now uninhabitable they moved to one of their biggest military bases; for being working for just three months, they turned it into a city quite fast".

"This is going to cause serious trouble" Yi said shaking his head "if the tension between the cities wasn't bad before now they'll surely destroy what was left of themselves"

"What? Noxus I get it but Demacia? The last thing they would do after something like this would be starting another war!" Ahri exclaimed with worry.

"No matter how noble it might seem at first sight Demacia is a nation ruled by men, humans, and humans tend to do foolish things when they are scared"

"Well believe it or not, they are now the least likely ones who you should expect trouble" the illuminated called their attention "before the event, all indicated that Jericho Swain would take the charge of grand general, but after it the council opted for the more conservative ways of Keiran Darkwill to restore the city. While he is not entirely a good person at least has the common sense that most Noxus lacks. So they won't be a problem for a while"

"Well, at least is something" Yi sighed in slight relief, and then noticed Wukong's troubled expression "something's wrong my apprentice?"

"There is one thing that bothers me"

'Only one?' the fox sweatdropped.

"Just how did you get those videos? Cause I doubt the news reporters would remain quiet while recording that"

"That's a good question, but I'm afraid I don't have the answer either" she gave them nothing but more shock.

"How is that?"

"A few days after the disaster, the videos came to the rulers of the cities by mail" she furrowed her eyebrows "there was no remittent, no note, just an envelope with a compact" tense silence fell on them.

"I'm a little afraid of pointing the obvious but, what happened to Xerath?" Ahri asked.

"Well it's impossible to die at the rift by any means so we doubt he is dead, he probably is in wherever he is when he isn't in the league, maybe recovering for what happened, as the rest of the unaffiliated champions"

"So we have no doubt this phenomenon was his doing?" the wuju master inquired.

"Not exactly; we have no doubts his magic was what destroyed the cities but we aren't sure it was his own will or even how it did that"

"Damn, so I guess we have a lot work ahead" Ahri groaned making Wu roll his eyes.

"Actually if that's all the info we had, there's little we can do about this aside from helping in the reconstruction of our city and our brothers" Yi said and karma nodded.

"Indeed, so take a week to recover from your slumber and then you can start helping"

"I see… well then it's settled, we are heading home" he lifted from his chair and in a quick motion lifted Ahri bridal style earning a yelp from her

"Y-y-you were really serious about this?" she spluttered with a slight blush.

"Of course, did you seriously think I was joking?" he led the way out of the office.

"Is that a tricky question?" he laughed at this and then exit, leaving the wuju master and the illuminated alone.

"So what do you think?" she asked.

"It seems that my student's denseness remains unbreakable" he shook his head.

"By the way I've been meaning to ask, how is it like? The master-student relationship?" he thought for moments, his expression becoming a bit distant.

"It's hard to put into words; you'll have to get your own relationship to be sure"

"I can't think of anyone with enough talent… or even want to be my student" she added slightly sad.

"You know that's untrue; I've heard the children playing to be the new Ionian war council, meaning not only me but you too and one other, who had already taken a disciple, so you are the only one remaining" Karma smiled at this.

"Yeah, I still can't picture why he took Ahri of all people"

"Because he saw something in her, something no one, maybe only Wukong, had seen… and since that day he started smiling again" he put a hand on her shoulder "you just need to find the right person that's all" she pondered his words for a moment.

"I'll try… later, now go home you should rest as well"

"You can say that, but I bet certain monkey will be at my door demanding training before the sun sets" she sweatdropped.

"Yeah, you might be right" after this Yi left her and head to his house as well.

* * *

The monkey king walked through the city carrying the nine tailed fox bridal style like she said he would, earning odd stares of most people they crossed, but Wukong couldn't care less and as for Ahri, well, she was squealing in delight inside her head while snuggling in his partner chest.

Before heading home, they went to the greengrocery to buy what they will need for the rest of the week, namely mangos (because seriously, the monkey had a weak spot to every meal that included mangos… or maybe is just the way Ahri prepared them, who knows).

When they reached the store they picked 25k of the beloved fruit and a few other things. So Wukong wasn't surprised when he saw the large amount of money all would cost but he still wasn't worried.

He had the nine tailed fox with him.

Just a bit of caressing and a few whispers and the shopkeeper (read: female and purely heterosexual up to that day) made them an 80 percent discount.

"You know I could have reduced the price to 0 right?" Ahri asked.

"Yes, but if don't restrain you a little all business Valoran would reach bankruptcy" he eyed her.

"Well if you say so"

"Now that I think of it, don't you have to make the girl a favor?" he asked curious.

"Why? She has two perfectly functional hands and a healthy uterus" the monkey laughed.

"She's just not your type" he teased.

"You got me there. Although I feel kinda sorry for her; even if she tries to vent off she wont be able to get over me in a week at best" she added pitiful voice with her characteristic sexy edge. The monkey sweatdropped.

"You are terrible" he lifted her bridal style again making her yelp once more "looks like you'll have a hard time getting used to it" he said.

"It's not like that, you just… keep taking me by surprise, that's all" the fox said with a small blush.

"Then it looks like I'll have to keep doing it; your expression is priceless"

Ahri grumbled at this 'I'm starting to think he's gaining more of the bet than I do' she snuggled closer to him 'but I won't complain'.

Since they asked for the groceries to be delivered at their house, they only had to walk there (well, Wukong walked while carrying Ahri but it's the same).

They walked a few minutes in the city to reach the forest and a few more to reach the house and then they arrived.

"I still can't believe master Karma gave us this" Ahri commented.

"I still can't believe how bad I tortured her for her to give us this" the monkey retorted.

"And I still can't believe how much she lasted against the irritating king" she laughed at him.

"You are gonna regret that" he sent her a dangerous gaze.

'I'm counting on that' her mind started fantasying.

Their house had around 200m2 and it was built in the same oriental architecture of the rest of Ionia. It had two floors with white walls and dark blue roof as well as rectangular walls painted on the same way around it, separating it from the rest of the forest.

As the walked past through the walls they were greeted by Ahri's garden, filled with all kinds flowers that the Ionian ground could cultivate. Aside from a hobby and decoration it was like a personal collection for the nine tailed fox and Wukong thought it was cool but he confessed her that so many colors in such a small space made him dizzy more than once.

But if you passed to the back garden you'll meet a peculiar sight: a professional level tree-house at the top of a tree of 15 meters. You can guess who it belonged to.

Since the monkey didn't felt entirely comfortable sleeping on the regular house, he asked for a builder friend for tips to how to build a house on the top of the back tree. And after two months of struggling with the materials he made a piece of art by himself (a/n: yes, I said by himself). Yi once told him that if the wuju didn't work out he could always opt for being a contractor.

Wukong have never laughed that hard.

The duo arrived the main crossed the main door and were greeted by the living room, that consisted on a sofa, a medium sized TV and a billiard table.

"Home sweet home" he let go Ahri.

"It's getting late. I should go and prepare dinner while you play dumb" she said.

"Can we have the mango pie first?" he gave her the best puppy eyes he had.

"I wouldn't let you have dessert first even if you kissed every centimeter of my body" she poked his nose.

"Yeeeah, sure you wouldn't" he added sarcastically earning a soft slap.

After that Ahri moved to the kitchen and Wukong decided to go to his tree house/room.

The tree had spiral stairs for the guests but since he was blessed with thumbs in his feet he just climbed the old way.

When he reached the top he opened the door and entered a 20m2 living room with a small TV in a corner, a couple of reclining armchair, a few stairs leading to the second floor, three banks and a table. That only occupied a third part of the floor.

The other part was a small gym with weights and a big pad. He just used it for maintenance; he didn't even think in doing serious training there and less sparring for the simple reason that he would demolish the house.

He climbed the stairs and reached the second floor which consisted only in a bedroom; just that it didn't had a bed but a hammock on a corner, a small fridge next to it (which created a lot of polemic for the fact that he had a TV on the dinning room and the fridge on his bedroom) and surprisingly a desk.

Master Yi was very insistent if not bothersome when he told Wukong that if he wanted to pull out the full potential of his body he had to train his mind just as well. At first he had no idea of how that worked but his master was very clear with his finality.

The monkey had no choice but to agree. The idea was that he had to write at least an hour a day but he still had the problem of having no idea of what to write.

' _I had the same problem at first, until one day I just sat on my desk and just wrote about what happened in the day. Soon I started writing about my training each time I had any problems with it'_ Wukong got close to the desk, opened the drawer and pulled out a diary written up to nearly the half of it.

 _"As the words left the pencil the thoughts and ideas in my head flew like a river, making all look clearer like never before, and then all the problems solved themselves like nothing"_ he sat on the desk (ignoring the chair) pulled out a pen from between the pages of the diary.

"You are showier than most people get to know" he played with the pen in his hands.

"One of these days you'll have to tell me why I'm not like most people" he started writing.

 _24_ _th_ _of the rain month, year 709 of the rat._

 _It was a while since my last update; it seems like me, the vixen and Yi had been in coma for nearly three months. I still don't know how the league keeps pulling stuff like this but I guess I should thank them for this one._

 _So I was all cheerful because all the champions went out unharmed but then master Karma dropped a bomb on us._

 _They have no idea how, but whatever made Xerath's body to explode like that also affected most of the city states, killing hundred's in the process._

 _And if it wasn't suspicious enough, Demacia and Noxus (the two favorite cities of all Valoran) had it the worst; half of their populations lost, Noxus becoming a wasteland making its ruler suddenly change._

 _Just another walk in the park._

 _But what really bothers me isn't any of that, but the fact that they both suffered almost the same. I have to admit that most people had enough reasons to hate Noxus but Demacia as well? I mean if only one of them had been attacked, all would have thought it was a war declaration but making all Valoran and mostly them suffer this fear, this impotency._

 _If it was any other way, I would have thought that this is some sort of vengeance, the tension between rival cities finally erupting. But this… now something tells me that it wasn't only Valoran who was hit by this, and I have the feeling that there is something way too big behind all of this._

He took a small pause, looked at his palm and then resumed writing.

 _And for the first time that idea doesn't excite me at all. Instead I'm worried, for Ahri, Yi, Karma; I'm worried for all of them._

 _And that only bothers me more._

He was about to write more but then something caught his senses.

The monkey put the diary in the drawer and headed to the main house.

He found Ahri on the kitchen wearing an apron and humming while cooking.

'She looks sexy like that' he wisely didn't say that aloud

"Hey"

"I know" she stopped her cooking "it looks like we have guests" they both went to the main door.

"Probably one of your "contacts"" Wukong teased.

"I hope Diana wants to vent herself again, she moans so cute"

"Yeah, I still can't get over her expression in the mornings" he recalled the pale Targonian almost bleeding from embarrassment, yelling at Ahri to not to touch her and that it was the last time she would come 'and yet she keeps returning always crying' now he wondered what her problem was.

They opened the door but saw no one, and were about to close it when the heard a small yelp from below.

"KAWAI!" Ahri squealed at the sight of a scarf weasel.

It was a small creature with a long body of about fifty centimeters as well as its flurry tail, giving it a length of a meter in total. It was cram colored, had small ears, red eyes and a pale pink nose. They were called like that because they like to sleep on people's necks like scarves. This made them pretty popular pets among rich people

"…Ahri"

"Yeah, I can smell it too" since they were both practically animals they had enhanced senses but mostly the smell, so they could detect the emotions of the creatures by it.

And this creature in particular smelled like fear.

"What's the problem little one?"

"Are you hungry? You can stay with us if you want" Ahri was about to reach it but it suddenly ran away and stopped ten meters away, jumping and yelping with desperation.

"It wants us to follow" the monkey said and then both chased the small animal.

* * *

"It's heading to the river!" they had been following the little thing for a few minutes, Wukong jumping over the trees and Ahri running on all fours, they could have been way faster but they were tailing the weasel.

After another two minutes they saw the river on the horizon, and with a few meters more Wukong catch something.

"There's someone on the river!" he yelled and dashed there leaving the weasel and the fox behind. He hurried so much because the person wasn't only on the river.

It was face down in the water and wasn't moving.

He arrived before his companions and pulled the man out of the water.

"Hey come one buddy hang in there" he didn't answer "sorry, this is going to hurt" he lifted his fist in the air, which acquired the cracks and the thickness of a rock and the hit the man in the stomach.

He woke up with a gasp and spit out a considerably amount of water, and then started breathing heavily.

"Phew! You startled me for a while" the monkey king said in relief.

The mysterious man took a sight of his savior before falling asleep.

"How is he?" Ahri asked when she arrived, followed by the weasel who jump on the chest of his friend.

"He'd just fell asleep but he is fine I hope"

"That's good" she took a closer look at the man "hey, if he needs a place to stay the night I can gladly share my bed with him" as you can guess, the man was quite handsome, even with the mask that covered his lower face.

"The only thing you are going to do is getting Soraka, he may need medical attention" he retorted peeking behind hi mask.

"Come on, he looks just fine" Wukong then pulled off his mask, earning a shock from Ahri and a grim face by him.

The man's right cheek looked like it was melted away; his molars were visible and had third-degree burns on his cheekbone and his muscles were visible.

"Why… who could do that to him?" she said covering her mouth with her hand.

Wukong inspected him a bit more and found the answer.

There was a crest burned in his right pectoral just above his heart.

The Demacian crest.


	7. Chapter 6 A fight of men

**You know, I considered getting a beta reader, but between the time he/she might take to read it plus the time it takes me to write a single chapter.**

 **Meh, too much time. Anyway, review &review **

* * *

Chapter 6

A fight of men

Wukong and Ahri walked to their house in awkward silence for a few minutes. The reason was none other than the unconscious man that the monkey king was carrying on his back, his weasel friend on his back as well, looking at the man worriedly.

Ahri was looking nervously to say man trying to figure out anything with a look even though she knew it was impossible.

But she also shifted from time to time to the face of her partner; his confident smirk that she loved so much was replaced by a serious frown, the one that anyone would use when they were feeling powerless. She hadn't seen him using that face since… certain day.

And she didn't like it at all.

After a few more minutes she decided it would be better to break the silence "ehm, Wu?" she called him.

"Yes?" he replied not looking at her or dropping his frown.

"You… you don't really believe that someone from Demacia did that to him do you?" he sighed.

"I don't know. And I don't want to make rush conclusions so I'm trying not to think too much about it"

"Judging from your expression I'd say you aren't doing well with that" she tried to joke a little.

"You know me to well" he smile a little but without his usual spark, making the fox worry even more.

A while later they arrived to their house. They placed him gently on the couch while Ahri ran to the hospital to get Soraka since there was no way Wukong would leave her alone with their unconscious guest.

So he just spent ten minutes which felt like an hour watching him and barely blinking, trying his best not to think much about him since he was sure he'll tell them the whole story, but didn't have any luck.

Then suddenly, reality hit him.

He made a copy of himself and sent him to bring his journal, and in less than a minute he delivered the book, the pen and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Now let's see…" he said before writing.

 _Really, just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore the world throws me this… 'Xerath event' yeah, I think I'm going to call it that way. But still, not content with that, I arrive at my house and not even ten minutes later a living scarf guides us to a dying man on the river, which alone isn't much, but the fact that he has the nastiest scar that I've ever seen and a… demacian crest burned right above his heart…_

 _Part of me wants to believe that he just took his patriotic pride a little too far. Hell, I even want to believe that both wounds were caused by Noxus or anyone else but… most of me believe that they would be naïve assumptions._

He sighed and looked at said man again.

 _I don't feel comfortable telling anyone else about it, but just before I woke up I had the weirdest dream ever (now that I think about it, that's a lot coming from me). There were no images, no sounds; just my own thoughts and the thoughts of someone else._

 _The 'voice' told me that I had to teach how to live (or that's what I got) to one of their children. And the same day this guy appears._

 _If there is one thing people can't deny about me is my instincts. I always let them guide me and not even once they failed me, and right now they are telling me that the man in front of me needs help._ _My_ _help, and that he deserves that help._

He looked once again and the man and gasped at the sight of him trembling and sweating. He was having a nightmare.

Wu looked at him for a while more before writing a few last words.

 _I still need to hear his story to confirm, but after that I'll help him to the best of my ability._

He sensed Ahri returning with Soraka and two other people. So he made another copy to take the journal to his desk and it completed the task right when the doors opened.

"He's right here" Ahri told Soraka.

The starchild looked at the man "how is he?" she asked

"Well I managed to take out a good amount of water from him but now I think he's having a nightmare and…" he turned to the two extra people "what are you doing here?"

"I was there when Ahri came looking for Soraka, and after all what happened we can't be too cautious" Karma said impassively.

"Karma informed me about this man… situation so I came to hear his version" Yi added.

"Anyway, do you think you can do something for him?" the monkey king asked the healer.

"Well, his cheek scar is too old and severe to do anything I'm afraid but maybe I could heal his chest burn. Aside from that he seems fine. Actually he could wake up any moment but…" she trailed off

"What?" Wu asked.

"What in the name of the Watcher is that?" she signaled the metal embedded in his arms, fingers, legs and spine.

"…good question"

"Maybe it's dangerous for him" Ahri said.

"I don't know. I should make a few tests but…"

"Ugh" the man groaned and slowly opened his eyes, calling everyone's attention "where am I?" he asked trying to get up.

"Easy there, you just woke up from almost drowning, just stay there for a while" Soraka said gently.

"Wha-? Yes, that's right. Thank you miss" he laid down again, unaware of the blush that appeared on the healer's face.

Everyone pretended not to notice as well.

Except for certain monkey who chuckled at Soraka's tendency of blushing for anything.

"So ekhm, how are you feeling?" she recomposed herself.

"Better than before, thanks" he replied while trying to shove away the dizziness.

"So, are you well enough to tell us what happened to you?" Yi asked.

"Of course but…" he put a hand over his eyes like in pain

"What?"

"Is just… a bit embarrassing" he replied.

"Come on, it can't be that bad!" the monkey king encouraged him.

"I… haven't slept for two months" he confessed, startling everyone.

"Why is that?" Karma asked.

"Is a long story" the pain in his eyes increased

"And err, what about your scars?" Ahri asked; they put the mask on his face again.

"That's right, we still haven't seen them" Yi said.

"… I…" he started trembling.

"It's ok; you don't have to tell us if you don't want"

"No… it's not that… I…" he was clearly in pain; the rest of the occupants in the room started worrying about him.

"Hey vixen, think you can help him whit that?" Wu asked his friend.

"Gladly!" she said a bit too eager.

"You are _only_ going to relieve his pain, right?" he asked threateningly.

"Please, you offend me my king" she gathered a good amount of her special magic on her hand and touched his face.

The reaction wasn't the expected.

He suddenly gasped and fell of the couch, screaming in pain.

"DAMNIT VIXEN! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" Wukong yelled.

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS HAPPENS!" Ahri yelled back, clearly offended.

Meanwhile, Karma and Yi were too shocked to move, while Soraka, being the medic, moved next to the man, attempting to calm him down.

"Please control yourself sir, where does it hurt? We can help…"

His head turned to her abruptly, making her gasp.

The sight of his eyes made her start sweating cold.

Black stains covered almost all his eyes, and were growing fast.

"R-run" he whispered whit desperation.

"Hey come on! Hang in there we only want…" Ahri started, but then…

' _Stop'_ she gasped.

' _Please stop… you are killing me'_

' _I-I can't! I can't go back, I WON'T!'_

' _B-but… I'm going to… die'_

' _I'm sorry'_

' _Please, I have two children, I'm begging you'_

 _But you didn't stop; you kept draining his life force for your selfish reasons, until you dried him._

' _No'_

 _They are right about you; you are nothing but a demon in a whore's disguise._

' _That isn't right! I-I changed!'_

 _If the situation changed you wouldn't hesitate in killing more innocent people._

' _I won't do that anymore!'_

 _And when that day comes, your so called best friend would be the first one you'll betray._

' _NO!'_

The dread felling clenched her throat.

The man got up slowly with his eyes closed. When he stood straight he opened them.

Both of them were entirely covered in black, his gaze became colder than the Howling abyss.

The vixen tried to scream, move, breathe, anything, but she couldn't.

The fear paralyzed her.

The man in front of her paralyzed her.

And like you can't prevent the darkness take over the light at night, she knew as she saw her life passing before her eyes that she couldn't escape what would come next.

She was going to die there, without admitting herself her own feelings.

The man reached for inside the jacket he was wearing and started pulling something out, and defying logic, a nearly two meters long metal rod emerged. And when he pulled it out completely, she noticed it wasn't just a rod.

It was a scythe.

The blade was about a meter and a half long, it bended slightly down and was decorated with a flowered bindweed patterns. On the other side there was another blade that looked like a flower shaped fan and was like a third size of the scythe blade.

The handle itself was jet black except for metal silver bindweed the enveloped it and that connected perfectly with the main blade decorations.

Still, Ahri almost didn't notice it because she was more concerned for the fact that the man had lifted the scythe ready to slice her in two.

She couldn't do anything; the fear had paralyzed her. She could only think in one thing, and that wasn't why this man wanted to kill her or why did she had to die like this.

No, she was thinking in one person, and that she will give anything to him smile again.

She closed her eyes, as the scythe shot down.

This was enough to pull Wu out of his daze.

He suddenly appeared in front of the man and blocked his attack with his staff.

"Someone needs to chill" he said with a smirk.

The man widened his eyes in shock for a moment but then turned cold again. He slashed the monkey king again, connecting this time but after that he exploded in a puff of smoke.

"Decoy" the man heard from behind and tried to move but then Wu's staff bended around him and threw him through the wall till the garden.

"I'll take care" he said to his friends. Once the man left the house they 'woke up' in a manner of speaking.

"W-what was that?" Soraka said still bit affected by the man's aura.

"I don't know; I never felt any magic like that" Karma spoke while trying to shove the feeling of her head.

"(Clank, clank!) Hahaha!" they heard the fight from outside.

"Right! Wu is fighting him, we have to help him!" she, as well as Karma and Soraka were about to run to his aid but then Yi noticed something.

"Wait!" he stopped them.

"What's wrong?" the enlightened one asked.

"I want to see something" at this Ahri gritted her teeth.

"What's to see? Wu is fighting a maniac that could kill him without thinking!"

"If you pay attention I'm sure you'll notice too, also, if he said he said he'll take care of it, then he will"

"But…" she felt something rub her leg. She looked down and saw the scarf weasel, giving her a pleading look.

"Have some faith in him, you more than anyone" after he said this the women remain in their places, although Ahri reluctantly.

* * *

Meanwhile, the monkey king and the mysterious man clashed their weapons at blinding speed, oddly enough, none of them managed to land a hit.

This impressed Wukong, and he could feel something that pulled his staff towards his opponent. A feeling that grew each time they clashed.

The man, from the outside, didn't seem to react to the situation in any way; his eyes remaining cold and murderous. Although, on the inside it was different.

' _What's happening?'_ he parried a thrust of his opponent and countered with a bottom up slash but he blocked it.

' _What's this feeling? I don't deserve to feel anything'_ he jumped backwards and threw his scythe at Wukong, who blocked again. But then he spun rapidly and the scythe followed him like connected to him by an invisible string.

The monkey king dodged and blocked as fast as he could until a swipe to his feet almost got him and jumped in the air.

The man, despite being spinning, noticed this and changed his attacks from horizontal to vertical, trying to hit him.

But how he countered it, actually surprised him.

He caught the scythe with his right hand and almost in the same movement he pulled the man towards him, standing on his cloud to get a better grip.

The man refused or couldn't let go of the scythe and ascended fast towards his opponent, who awaited ready to strike him.

This managed to pull him out his daze. He started to retract the string, increasing his ascension speed while turning his body to meet Wukong with a frontal kick.

This happened in 0.08 seconds, but Wu still managed to change his grip from offensive to defensive and blocked the kick. Still, the force of the attack sent him flying to deeper into the forest. The man landed and then jumped towards him, while Wu's friends plus weasel followed them.

* * *

The speed he was thrown surprised Wukong and almost landed on the ground but he managed to summon his cloud to cushion his fall.

He got in stance and almost immediately after the mysterious man appeared ten meters away.

The eyed one another, analyzing their opponents.

Wu could already tell this man was waaay strong; his ability with that scythe was almost… nah who I'm kidding, it WAS faultless; even if he managed to find an opening, which wasn't easy at all, his high reflexes allowed him to change his grip and block in the last second, also, he seemed to be connected to his weapon somehow allowing him to attack mid and long range not to mention the force behind that kick spoke volumes of his physical strength.

In short, this was going to be a badass fight.

Meanwhile, on the confines of the mysterious man fight, an internal debate was taking place.

' _I… don't understand… did someone… touch Seed? I thought I was the only one… what's happening?'_

Wukong stared at the man for a few more seconds and noticed that his gaze was lost.

As soon as he concluded that, the man shook his head and got into stance again, and so did he.

They remained like that for a single second and then shot towards each other, leaving a crater where they stood

The man swung his scythe low trying to hit the monkey's feet but he jumped and in the air, he tried to hit his head but the man tilted his head to the side avoiding the hit.

Wu landed back to back with his opponentand without bothering to look he thrust backwards and just like he predicted, he blocked it without looking as well.

The monkey smirked and ordered his staff to grow, pushing the man and catching him off guard.

He saw his position and anticipating his movements once more, he decided to try something new.

He broke his staff in two pieces, holding the large one towards the man; still pushing him; with his right hand and with the left hand he held the shorter one which began extending as well but as fast as he it could.

He spun and aimed the left piece to his opponent's right side. As he predicted, he parried the first piece of the staff to the left side, leaving his right side exposed.

Wu expected him to take the hit or dodge it since it was the logical thing to expect but once again the man surprised him, and the surprise came with two words.

"La vide" he said, and suddenly, hundreds of translucent strings appeared from his right arm, interweaving and formed a shield. The shield bended but didn't broke, but the attack still managed to push the man slightly to the side.

The monkey was shocked at first, but then a huge grin appeared on his face.

"Not bad!" he pulled out all his strength and kept pushing the man in a circle.

The man tried to parry the staff aside but then the first staff started entangling him, preventing him to move.

Wukong spun more and more, faster each time, and when he was happy with the speed, he lifted the man in an arc.

"Sledgehammer!" he yelled before slamming him on the ground, creating a dust cloud.

He panted slightly, waiting for the cloud to disperse. And when he saw the results… well… most would have grunted in frustration, but he only grinned more.

The man had absorbed the impact with the same shield technique, and was now giving him a deadly glare.

"Ehm, sorry?" the monkey said and then noticed something off "where's your scy-?"

SLASH! The weapon in question shot from the ground beneath him and left a gash across his body.

He managed to land a hit

* * *

From a safe distance the monkey's friends acted as spectators.

"Wu!" Ahri was about to help his friend but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Don't" Karma said.

"Why?! He can get really hurt or even die!"

"You should know him better by know" Master Yi answered.

"It's ok; as long as I'm here no one will die" Soraka assured her

"But…"

"Just watch" he ended the conversation. The fox had no other choice but to trust her friend, although she had to admit, something indeed seemed off about the fight

* * *

"Guh!" Wukong said and looked back at the man; he dug his index finger in the ground and then he saw a string like the ones from his shield connected to the pommel of his staff.

That gave him an idea.

"Hey, let me try that!" he broke once more his staff and this time he pointed the tip of the smaller piece to the ground and then extended it nearly half the speed of a bullet, burying it in the ground.

His opponent's instincts screamed to get away of where he was laying but the other pieces of the staff kept him restrained.

All he could do was preparing his shield for the single staff that he knew was coming from the ground.

Except for two details.

1 He didn't have enough time to prepare the shield.

2 There wasn't just one staff that came out.

Nearly a dozen of rods emerged from the ground, thrusting the man on the chest, breaking two of his ribs.

Wukong managed to land a hit as well.

"Now that's more like it" he morphed the three pieces of the staff into three full ones and grabbed them, one on each hand and one on his tail and charged at his opponent who charged as well.

* * *

"Hey… is it just me or…" Ahri started.

"No you're right" Karma continued "Wu has become stronger" the fox widened her eyes.

"But how? When? We've been out for three months"

"I think I know the answer" Yi called everyone's attention "I knew since our first training session that Wu never showed me his true strength"

"You mean the monkey king, battle lover and future top warrior was holding back all this time?" Soraka asked "that's impossible"

"That's what I thought, so I confronted him about it but he had no idea what I was talking about" Ahri widened her eyes.

"Wu had been lying to himself? Why?"

"I guess is because of his goal"

"How so?" Karma asked.

"Do you remember how he was born? The runic stone?" the women nodded "he was born when the stone broke in a ritual made by monkeys, from there his species, but before the stone was broken it imbued energy the every living being around it, but when it broke, it became a creature who could absorb the surrounding energy to make his skin harder"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you see? The stone powers had the opposite effect on Wu; from giving energy to absorb it, this is just my theory, but I think his thirst for greatness is also due to this effect; breaking the stone didn't only affected his powers but his mind as well" the girls gasped.

"But… but what does that means then? How that makes him hide his strength?"

"Again, this is just my assumption, but I think somewhere inside him Wu knew the reason behind his goal, so he held back his strength because of denial, because he had something to prove"

"What? What is it?" Ahri asked almost desperately.

"That he's more than just the influence of a rock" everyone remained silent for a while after that, pondering his words.

The fox watched his friend fighting again; after the mysterious man recovered from Wu's hit they shot towards each other, clashing weapons again, except that this time, they did managed to land a few hits here and there.

Then something clicked in her head "but if that is true why is he showing his true strength now?" Yi sighed.

"I don't know why, I don't know how, but I think exchanging blows with that man he is finding the answer he's looking for; his true self"

"'Only in combat you learn who you truly are' sounds familiar?" Soraka asked aloud.

Ahri couldn't believe it; all this time Wu had felt like this? And she never noticed?

Maybe she wasn't a good friend after all.

* * *

The stranger and the monkey king had been clashing for a while now. The man tried to slash his chest again, this time with full force but the monkey managed to block with his three staves.

They remained like that, each one trying to overpower the other. Until both of them pushed the other back once more.

Wukong saw the state they were both in and couldn't hold it anymore.

He burst out laughing.

His sudden action startled everyone on the battlefield, but no one more than the stranger.

For the first time since they met him, his eyes were filled with nothing but pure shock.

"HAHAHAHAHA! YESS! I thought that fighting was good for the soul before but THIS?! I haven't felt like this since… since… ever! HAHAHAH!"

As soon as the man heard his declaration something happened to him.

He started to wobble back and forth, clenching his eyes shut and holding his forehead like in pain again.

' _I've been fighting? This… this… man? He managed to survived until now, and his laugh… is too loud… is echoing in my head. He should have succumbed already but instead… instead…'_

'HIS EXCITEMENT IS RUBBING ON ME!' he yelled inside his head, the black on his eyes receding fast.

He dashed once more towards Wu but this time he waited for him.

The man made an upside down slash and just when it looked like the hit landed, Wu's body exploded in smoke.

The real him was just behind the decoy and in the perfect position to block his attack with his right staff, lock it with the left one, and counterattack with the tail one.

But before he could connect, the man let go of his scythe and punched him in the gut.

The monkey was pushed backwards and started panting, as well as his opponent.

As they looked each other, the thrill in their eyes was evident. They were both actually trembling in excitement; they've never had this sensation before.

The urge of clashing weapons, not for achieving victory but because that act alone filled them with joy.

And that's when the man began to remember.

* * *

 _Flashback, Noxus 53 years ago_

In one of the most secluded (meaning also fanciest) caves of Noxus there was a gothic mansion, only second to the Du'couteau mansion and maybe the war council.

On the outside grille, there was sign that said simply "De'rose". Unlike most of the buildings in the city, that irradiated an aura of power and authority, this one gave more a familiar vibe.

Well, at least most of the time.

Right now in one of the rarely used hallways, behind a secret door, there were ladders leading to a panic room that few of the mansion occupants knew about.

Inside said panic room there was a little boy of around 5 years lying on the ground in fetal position. He had short black hair and sky blue eyes and looked like the definition of misery.

Yet, he wasn't crying.

Why would he cry? He ended here by his own will and for helping a friend; he wouldn't change a thing.

He wasn't crying because he knew there was no reason to, but if it were for him, he would have already flood the room with tears.

Suddenly, the sound of the room's door being opened called his attention.

Without bothering on using the ladders, a man landed a few feet away from the child. He was almost a carbon copy of the child, except his eyes were gold.

He walked towards the child until he had him right at his feet, but the child gave no sign of acknowledging the man's presence.

Until he finally started to cry.

"What am I going to do with you?" the man sighed.

"(sob) I'm s-(sob) sorry father (sob)" the boy cried.

"Hoo? And why would you have to apologize for?" he asked genuinely curious.

"I-(sob) r-really tried to (sob) be strong b-but (sob) I ended (sob) h-her… (sob) (sob)"

"Okay first of all calm down" the man told him after which the boy sat up and he sat as well; it took a few minutes but he finally calmed down "now tell me exactly what happened"

The boy took a deep breath "the sons of the commander that came from visit were bothering Sabrina, because she has white hair and…" he stopped for a moment.

"They were calling her names and… and… they said that they were going to throw her here so they wouldn't have to see her" he started to sob again.

"I (sob) told them to leave her alone but (sob) they said I couldn't do (sob) anything because they heard I'm a coward and they said that if wanted (sob) I could take her place and…" he almost couldn't continue.

"And?" his father pressed.

"(sob) And I… I… couldn't (sob) fight them! I knew I could save us both but the idea of having to fight for it (sob) (sob) I was…"

"You were afraid they would hurt you?" his father guessed.

"No" this called the man's attention.

"I was afraid I would hurt them" his father widened his eyes; how many times something like this happened but the boy still surprised him.

'He really isn't made for Noxus' he sighed.

"Ok listen" the boy looked at him "why do you think fighting is for?"

The boy thought for a moment "isn't it for proving being the strongest?"

"That's what I used to thought, but turns out, it isn't that simple" the boy listened with attention.

"True; no matter if you fight to win a war or to protect someone, in the end you must aim for victory, for being the strongest"

He searched in his pocket, pulled out a rune and placed it between them. The boy recognized it as a sound suppressing spell.

"But listen to me now, even if in most of cases fighting is just the line that separates defeat from victory, that doesn't mean always" the boy widened his eyes.

"What?"

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who seek victory and those who only seek fight"

"Huh? Why would someone fight if it's not for winning?" this father chuckled.

"The answer to that question can differ from man to man to even woman, but people, even you who despise the idea of hurting others, can find a reason to drop their inhibitions and become warriors"

"Really? Even me?" the boy asked.

"Not only you could but I'm sure you will, and when you do, you'll see that fighting will become a lot easier, and also…" he got up.

"You will learn the difference between a fight for victory, and a fight of men"

The boy looked at his father with wonder filled eyes. Then he remembered something and began chuckling.

"What's so funny?"

"Is just that when you said 'fight of men' it sounded like something mother would nag you about" at this his father fell on his back anime style.

"Why do you bring her into this?!" the boy laughed harder and then saw that someone else came to the room.

It was a girl of nearly the same age as the boy, wearing a white shirt and a black skirt. She had long white hair and orange eyes.

"Sabrina? What are you doing here?" the boy asked while the father picked the rune.

"Are you kidding? She was the one that came looking for me"

"I know you told me not to but I just couldn't leave you there!" the girl said a bit ashamed.

"It's ok; I knew you wouldn't listen" the boy grinned and soon the girl followed suit.

"Well children, I still have much work to do and since you've through so much already feel free to have the rest of the day for yourselves"

"Yes! Thanks master/father"

 _Flashback ends_

* * *

The stranger smiled warmly under his mask at the memory.

'Father… thanks. I think I get it now; this is a real' he raised his scythe 'FIGHT OF MEN!' the dug it in the ground.

Wukong raised an eyebrow at his action, but grinned again when his opponent got into stance, without hi weapon.

"I like the way you think!" he followed suit with his staves.

They ran towards each other for the umpteenth time in war cry, continuing just with their bare fists.

The 'spectators' watched in awe at the rest of the fight; this wasn't a man trying to stop a beast in rampage to protect his friends.

No, now it was two brothers separated at birth that had been finally reunited, and were currently expressing their happiness in their mother language.

The fox felt her heart lighten at the sight; it was the first time she had seen him so happy, so free.

She wanted nothing more than hug him forever but she knew she would probably ruin his fun.

So she just kept watching the man she admired the most, who had an expression like having found that thing he was looking his whole life with the biggest smile ever on his face.

She could feel tears swelling on her eyes.

* * *

The fighters continued exchanging fists and kicks for more than an hour now and were finally reaching the exhaustion.

Their attacks had become slow and sloppy. They didn't care, but no matter how much they wanted to deny it, they were reaching their limits.

They were now a foot away from each other; each one covered in numerous bruises and bumps and panting heavily.

They looked at each other straight in the eyes.

They prepared one last punch.

They threw it, both hitting on each other's cheek.

Then they both fell to the ground.

"Hehe" Wukong stuttered "HAHAHA! Yeah! (pant) That was badass! Wasn't that badass?! (pant)" he asked.

The man thought for a moment.

"It (pant) was the first time (pant) I enjoyed a fight" the monkey was shocked for a moment but then smiled.

"Really? I feel like I'm from family now" the both chuckled "and it seems you returned to your senses?"

"Yeah… I apologize"

"No problem, no one got hurt"

"But…"

"Like I said, no problem; you made feel like I recover all that time I was out… although that probably doesn't make sense to you"

"Actually, I understand perfectly how you feel" he surprised the monkey again.

"Really? How so?"

"Well, like I said, it's a long story" something clicked on Wu's mind.

"Oh that's right! We never introduced!" he lifted his left fist.

"The name's Wukong, but my friends call me Wu"

The man watched Wu's fist for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Until it hit him.

"Aaron, Aaron De'rose" he touched the monkey's fist with his right one.

"Right double A! I'm sure we'll be friends!"

'Friend' the word resonated in his head.

"I hope so" he said.


End file.
